Mistaken Identity

A peacock had to be put down after being cruelly beaten and kicked outside a Tottenville (Staten Island) fast-food restaurant, and its assailant is still on the loose.

Witnesses said a man in his late teens or early 20s grabbed the helpless bird by its neck, struck it repeatedly with a baseball bat and kicked it in a Burger King parking lot on Page Avenue.

He then jumped onto the hood of a car and threw the peacock to the ground before running off when he saw police.

"He said 'I'm killing a vampire,'" said Felicia Finnegan, 19, who works at the Burger King and had been feeding bread to the peacock in the parking lot just after 7:30 a.m.

Miss Finnegan had gone out to look at the bird, an uncommon sight on Staten Island.

Shortly after going back into the restaurant, she heard the man screaming and saw him rip off his shirt before stepping on and kicking the bird.

"He was really beating it. I just think it was sick and demented. He shouldn't be walking around on the street," said Miss Finnegan.

The peacock never had a chance.

"We brought it back to our care center on [Veterans Road] but the injuries were so extreme, we had to put the animal down for humane reasons," said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for Animal Care & Control of New York City. "He was beaten so severely that some of the feathers fell out at the scene and others fell out at the care center. It's a horrible, horrible situation."

The beauteous bird's presence in Tottenville was explained by George Burke of Prince's Bay, who has raised peacocks for several years and gave some to a Tottenville resident a few years ago. He was appalled when told what happened.

"What's wrong with parents who let kids turn into [expletive] like that?" he asked. "I think the kid needs a little bit of psychological evaluation. Oh, what a shame."

I just don't see how this guy confused the peacock with a vampire. Was the peacock wearing a black cape? Also, if it was in the morning during daylight hours, he should have known a vampire would never be out at that time of day. What a shame!