ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County community wants answers after finding 30 peacocks in their neighborhood dead in the last month.
This is unfolding in the Deer Island community of Oakland.
A picture showing some of the dead peacocks is making rounds of social media after people living in Deer Island reached out to an advocate telling her someone is killing the beloved birds.
People living in Deer Island told Channel 9 they are devastated at losing the peacocks and fear someone in their community is behind it.
If you spend any time around Oakland, you’ll likely run into the peacocks.
“We call him the supervisor. Every time somebody’s doing work around here, he always has to supervise it,” said Mo Jacobson.
Mo Jacobson was the driving force in making Oakland become a bird sanctuary. She says people come by specifically looking to see the peacocks.
“Literally morning and night, people bring their kids down here to look for the peacocks,” said Jacobson.
But recently, she says something disturbing has been happening to the exotic birds on Deer Island, about a mile away from her home.
“In one day, they found about 12 deceased peafowl. It’s a mixture of the boys and females. And it progressed, and they counted 30 that were deceased in a two-week time span,” said Jacobson.
She’s shared an image on social media showing nine deceased peacocks and it’s getting a lot of attention. In hopes of figuring out what’s happening to the birds. Jacobson says the HOA completed a toxicology report on the dead birds.
“The results from that just came back, and they found it was rat poison and antifreeze,” said Jacobson.
Jacobson says the area of Deer Island is unincorporated, so it’s not a bird sanctuary. And she’s worried someone may be harming them
“I can’t believe anyone would actually want to kill an animal just because you don’t like it. It’s not right,” said Jacobson.
Channel 9 has reached out to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office said they’re aware and looking into it.
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