Friday, November 18, 2016

Pesky peacocks pose problems for Wayne Newton's neighbors in Vegas

Feathers are flying in the neighborhood around Wayne Newton's estate, where residents are complaining that peafowl like the ones on the Las Vegas showman's 40-acre ranch have become roosting, roaming pests. Residents who live near Casa de Shenandoah claim peafowl from the ranch wander the neighborhood – squawking, scratching family cars and creating a traffic hazard. “We heard something on our roof that scared us to death,” April Juelke told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We thought a burglar was breaking in, but it was a bunch of peacocks.” Newton's lawyer, Jay Brown, said the birds aren't Newton's. “We've never bought a peacock. We've never brought in a peacock,” Brown said. Sure, peacocks and hens were among the exotic menagerie the iconic “Mr. Las Vegas” headliner kept when he lived at the ranch southeast of the Las Vegas Strip. Among them were Arabian horses, penguins, a Capuchin monkey named Boo, and wallabies. Brown said peafowl were already at the ranch when Newton bought the property in the '60s. Neighbor Bart Donovan, a member of a local advisory board, sees it differently. “These things were born on the Newton property, they live there, they roost there at night,” he said. “As far as I'm concerned, they're their birds.”...more

I was on Newton's place around 1970. Some friends took me there to see the steer wrestling horse "Little 8".  I remember at the time that was the fanciest horse barn I had ever seen. It was at night though, so no peacocks.

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