source: WTOP

In New York, a peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said. Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Burger King parking lot in Staten Island and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees were feeding him bread when the man appeared. He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19. “He was going crazy,” she said. Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, “‘I’m killing a vampire!’”

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as in his teens or early 20s. It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

I wonder if it was the same guy who killed the “Yakuza Attack Dog”

Update From NY Daily News:

A Staten Island man was arrested yesterday in the cruel beating of a wild peacock, who was stomped and choked last week in a Burger King parking lot. John Potts, 32, shouted, “I’m killing a vampire,” as he attacked the beautiful bird Thursday morning in Tottenville, police and witnesses said. Potts, of Surfside Plaza, was arrested after a shovel-wielding fight yesterday with his dad, who then turned his son in for the bizarre animal beating. Potts was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, and cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor, police said.

He had been arrested on unrelated burglary charges Friday after a Surfside Plaza neighbor returned home and found Potts inside, police said. He was carrying a knife and was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Yesterday, cops were called to the home he shares with his father about 7 p.m., after Potts threatened his dad with the shovel, police said. He fled and headed to the beach at Sprague and Surf Aves., where he was arrested about 8:30 p.m., cops said.

Apparently, the bird’s name was Chocolate.

Potts may have been simply mistaken. Remember, vampire peacocks do exist: