{"id":31764,"date":"2023-09-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marvel-peafowl-ruffle-feathers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:45:24","slug":"marvel-peafowl-ruffle-feathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marvel-peafowl-ruffle-feathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel peafowl ruffle feathers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Wendy
Wendy Kaye has approximately 22 peafowl on her property in Marvel, south of Hesperus. The birds wander the town, angering neighbors so much that the problem has caught the attention of La Plata County commissioners. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

MARVEL \u2013 Residents of Marvel, the unincorporated 68-person community south of Hesperus, are brooding over a flock of peafowl that live in the town. The birds are noisy, aggressive and dirty, they say.<\/p>\n

But Wendy Kaye, the keeper of the flock, says her neighbors fail to recognize what the birds add to the community and insists she is not asking too much of them.<\/p>\n

The conflict started with neighbors taking shots at the colorful avians with BB guns, releasing dogs on them or hitting them with cars. But when animal control officials were called in, questions arose about the categorization of the birds: Are they livestock, an exotic animal or a domestic animal? The confusion left the problem caught between enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Angry residents eventually took the problem to the La Plata County commissioners at an \u201cOn the Road\u201d event in July. The issue has been the topic of conversation at several discussions with county officials.<\/p>\n

\"Wendy
Wendy Kaye has approximately 22 peafowl on her property in Marvel, south of Hesperus. The birds wander the town, angering neighbors so much that the problem has caught the attention of La Plata County commissioners. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A month later, Kaye was cited by La Plata County Animal Control for \u201cfailure to provide proper supervision, safe confinement and necessary care.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office said deputies have responded to a handful of calls stemming from neighbors trespassing on Kaye\u2019s property to collect feathers.<\/p>\n

Kaye has kept peacocks on her property for 12 years, she said. At one point, she had as many as 100 birds, but cut back to about 50 after deciding that was \u201ctoo much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting in a barn surrounded by containers of the birds\u2019 fallen plumage, Kaye shares a sip of Pepsi with a 4-month-old orphan bird she is parenting.<\/p>\n

Around her property, peacocks and peahens camouflage themselves into the wild grasses, flittingly fleeing from approaching humans. Kaye\u2019s flock is down to just 22 birds now, after she moved 15 of her most prized pets up to her mother\u2019s ranch in Wyoming after the citation.<\/p>\n

\"Wendy
Wendy Kaye sells peacocks and their feathers, which she says means the animals are classified as livestock and may therefor wander the town. However, officials have determined that the birds are domestic pets. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The birds are her pets, but also a business. She makes bouquets out of the peacock\u2019s shimmering tail feathers and sometimes sells the birds themselves. Kaye also said tourists would stop through Marvel to see her free-roaming peacocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to make an opportunity out of the whole thing, to make something good for Marvel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her neighbors, for the most part, do not see it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re everywhere,\u201d said Larry Opsal, who lives about a half mile from Kaye. \u201cThey\u2019re in everybody\u2019s yard. They\u2019re in everybody\u2019s trees. They (poop) everywhere. They\u2019re a pain in the (butt).\u201d<\/p>\n

Opsal was one of 15 Marvel residents to sign the petition submitted to the Board of County Commissioners in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe peacocks are a public health concern as well as a nuisance,\u201d it read. \u201cThey call all night long over our homes and have made it very difficult for local residents to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cI
\u201cI tried to make an opportunity out of the whole thing, to make something good for Marvel,\u201d Wendy Kaye said of her peacocks. Her neighbors do not see it that way. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Opsal confirmed he can hear the birds\u2019 calls from his own home \u201cplain as day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaye recognizes that the birds are, as she puts it, \u201cone of the loudest things on the face of the earth.\u201d But she puts the responsibility on her neighbors, arguing that the birds are only loud when they feel threatened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to go around every year to neighbors and tell them if the birds are getting into anything, spray them with the water hose,\u201d Kaye said. \u201c \u2026 I told them they\u2019re welcome to tell me what they\u2019re doing, I\u2019ll try to correct it. Sometimes they got to get put in birdie jail. If they\u2019re a nuisance to the point that they need to be culled, I\u2019d cull them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Kaye\u2019s neighbor feel this ask is unreasonable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not our place to be chasing peacocks out of our yards and spraying water on them trying to shoo them out \u2013 that\u2019s just an everyday thing,\u201d said one neighbor who lives down the block.<\/p>\n

An official working to resolve the situation, who spoke on background given that a citation has already been issued, said the hope is to find a \u201cconstructive\u201d solution.<\/p>\n

But that may be difficult.<\/p>\n

The birds do poorly in enclosed spaces; they become aggressive, anxious and often fight. Kaye has caged a handful of her peacocks as she prepares to move them in order to remedy the source of the citation, but says that has only been possible because the breeding season just ended, rendering the birds unusually docile.<\/p>\n

If the birds are not kept in individual cages, it is recommended that the enclosure offer at least 250 square feet per bird.<\/p>\n

Whether the peafowl have to be penned was also a question that stymied enforcement at first. Colorado is a \u201cfence-out\u201d state, meaning livestock can roam and property owners must erect fences if they wish to keep livestock out.<\/p>\n

Despite Kaye\u2019s initial claims, peafowl are designated<\/a> not as livestock, but as domestic animals.<\/p>\n

\"A
A peacock walks on the side of County Road 134 near Marvel. The birds wander the town, much to the chagrin of many residents. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kaye is resistant to containing the birds in a cage \u2013 but keeping them on her property is no easy task either. Peafowl can jump 8 feet up off the ground, and Kaye is resistant to clipping their wings because neighbors\u2019 dogs have attacked her birds in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not been a super straightforward case,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n

Kaye will appear in court on Sept. 27 for a hearing stemming from the citation, but she has yet to figure out what she will do with the doting juvenile fowl that cannot leave her side.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the birds has run afoul of her neighbors, who complain of noise, smell and trespass <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,866,475,1680,1398,2203],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-hesperus","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-livestock-farming","tag-marvel"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81554,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31764\/revisions\/81554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31764"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}