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LAS VEGAS (Gambling911.com) - The trial for a Canadian tourist accused of stealing and torturing a flamingo from a casino pool began on Wednesday with a security guard on his smoke break during a graveyard shift testifying about a voice crackled over the radio, “someone took a flamingo.”
Mitchell Fairbarn, 33, faces four counts of animal cruelty in connection with the March incident involving Peachy whereby he is accused of forcibly grabbing the beloved flamingo and dragging him to his hotel room at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas where the bird happily lived in his habitat until that evening.
Fairbarn claims he was drunk at the time the flamingo was removed the early morning hours of March 3. He has pleaded not guilty.
Fairbarn was said to have injured several birds in addition to Peachy. Inside his hotel room, officers located a “large bloody feather” along with other material, police said.
All are recovering well according to casino officials.
“Our beloved birds, including Peachy, who was cruelly taken from the habitat, are currently in the care of dedicated veterinarians and our extraordinary Flamingo animal care team,” a spokesperson for the hotel casino wrote in a March statement. “We remain hopeful they will make a full recovery.”
One condition of Fairbarn’s March 9 bail was that he surrender her passport, meaning he has not been able to return home to Canada.
Clark County District Court Judge Jacqueline Bluth advised the jury to listen to opening statements as Assistant District Attorney Alex Chen played surveillance video from March 3, depicting Mitchell Fairbarn, 33, grabbing “Peachy” the flamingo, in the middle of the casino’s habitat island.
The horrors Peachy had to endure during this time frame were captured on surveillance video from the casino.
Assistant District Attorney Alex Chen showed the surveillance video on Day 1 of the trial.
He said surveillance video shows Fairbarn pinning “Peachy” to the ground as a flock of flamingos fled to the other side of the habitat island.
In the next video, Chen directed jurors to watch a cell phone clip that he said depicted Fairbarn and another hotel guest expressing amazement that “Peachy” was on the 14th floor of the hotel. Chen said Fairbarn is captured grabbing Peachy by the neck as the flamingo honked several times before getting carried away down the hotel hall.
“He’s the [expletive] flamingo bounty hunter,” an unnamed hotel guest said in the video.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
