On December 1, 2009 the Honolulu Advertiser provided an update on the case of the woman accused of brutally bashing a peacock with a baseball bat back in May 2009. You may recall that after bashing it she left it to die while it piteously cried for over an hour. She explained that the bashing occurred because she couldn’t take its noise anymore. Her attorney is now seeking to have the animal cruelty charges against her dismissed on the basis that peacocks “are detrimental to human life."
Her attorney further said that peacocks are not pet animals, and are in fact "nuisances, pests or vermin", and that this justifies the vicious bashing of the peacock since it disturbed the woman’s sleep.
If Peacock bashing is okay, then what about bashing people who disturb your sleep? Are they "nuisances, pests or vermin", or are they "detrimental to human life"? When is it justified to take another living beings life, when it disturbs your sleep, when you feel hungry, or only when it is absolutely necessary to maintain a human life?
It will be interesting to see how the case unfolds in court.
Mark Fergusson