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A peacock in Georgia caused a lot of calls about injuries and property damage, so Georgia police said they had to shoot it.

WSB, our sister station, heard from the LaGrange Police Department that they had been called about the animal for more than a year and a half. After 1 p.m. on April 28, the last call to Southern Orthopaedic and Southern Surgery was made.

The police officers who came said they tried to hold the peacock with a plastic gun and other non-lethal or less-than-lethal weapons. When those didn’t work, they killed it with a shotgun.

“Even after the first two direct hits from the less dangerous beanbag, the peafowl was still able to fly a long way,” a department spokesperson said. “More bean bag rounds were fired, and then lethal shotgun rounds were fired, killing the animal in the end.”

WSB reported that a nearby elementary school and worries about kids getting out soon were another reason what led to the use of deadly force.

“Because of the services Southern Orthopaedic and Southern Surgery provide, we were afraid that leaving the area with the animal already upset would put kids coming home from school and patients who are already having trouble walking in danger,” they said.

Police said an Animal Control officer was attacked after going to the clinic for the first time that day.

then tried “for quite some time to get close enough to the fowl to lasso it with a catch pole,” but they were not able to catch it.

A spokesman said, “The animal would fly so far away from us that the whole process would have to start over.” “We tried this several times but failed each time.”

WSB says they also tried to stun the bird with a Taser to try to stop it long enough to catch it and bring it to an animal services truck nearby.

“Officers couldn’t get into a position where they could safely, comfortably, and accurately use the Taser on the small target because of the less lethal device’s angle of probe spread,” they said.

After several failed efforts to restrain the bird and the need to block off the area with officers and patrol cars, the police said, “the wild animal had, at this point, repeatedly shown its capacity for violence,” and they had to use more force.

The police then moved to live ammunition and used lethal shotgun rounds to kill the animal.

After that, the peacock’s body was taken away from the land.

For WSB, cops said that the Department of Natural Resources does not answer calls about peacocks and peafowl because they are not native to Georgia and are not an endangered species.

“It’s important to note that no local entities, like animal safaris and zoos, are willing to take this peafowl into their care,” they said.

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