Canadian tourist convicted of animal cruelty over injured Las Vegas flamingo Peachy

A Canadian tourist has been found guilty of taking a flamingo from the habitat of a famous Las Vegas hotel and injuring it. The verdict was delivered on Monday.

The accused is Mitchell Fairbarn, from Ontario, Canada. After deliberating for about five hours, jurors convicted him of both felony and misdemeanour animal cruelty charges.

The incident took place on March 3 at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. According to the allegations, Fairbarn removed Peachy, a 27-year-old Chilean flamingo, from the wildlife habitat and took the bird to his hotel room.

Surveillance footage presented at the trial showed Fairbarn holding the flamingo inside an elevator and carrying it through a hotel hallway while the bird squawked.

Prosecutors argued Fairbarn deliberately caused the bird pain, pointing to footage of him pulling Peachy by its feet and to feathers found on the hotel floor.

Las Vegas police were called after hotel security reported the flamingo missing from its enclosure. When Peachy was found, the bird was missing seven or eight feathers, had blood on its feathers and had injuries to its wings.

Fairbarn's defence attorney Josh Tomsheck acknowledged his client had made poor decisions while intoxicated but argued he never intended to injure the animal. He told jurors: 'He should not have done that, should not have gone into the habitat, shouldn't have touched a bird, shouldn't have taken Peachy inside. The truth is, Mitch was drunk. Mitch was stupid. He made bad decisions.'

Tiffany Moore, medical director of Lone Mountain Animal Hospital, who treated Peachy, said the bird is doing well physically but remains more anxious during veterinary examinations.

Fairbarn remains under house arrest awaiting sentencing on December 1. He faces up to four years in prison on the felony conviction and an additional six months for the misdemeanour offence.

During the trial, prosecutors acknowledged Fairbarn had received death threats after the incident and was unable to return to Canada when his father died while the case was pending. Clark County prosecutor Haley Willming argued those consequences resulted from his own actions, saying: 'None of that would have happened had he not done what he did, had he not made the choices he made.'

The Flamingo Las Vegas is one of the Strip's oldest resorts and is known for its wildlife habitat, which houses flamingos, turtles, koi fish and other animals.