P. V. Estates : Peafowl Program Adopted

Over the objections of residents who consider the city’s two peafowl flocks to be valuable community assets, the City Council this week unanimously voted to adopt a peafowl management program that allows the birds to be trapped on private property by the Southern California Humane Society at the request of property owners.

Under the program, trapped peafowl will be taken to a wildlife sanctuary until the two flocks, which inhabit the Espinosa Circle and Malaga Cove Library areas, are reduced by a total of 25 birds.

The council also adopted a declaration stating that the trapping program will have no significant impact on the environment. The declaration is required under provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act and was ordered after an environmental study showed that the trapping would not harm the peafowl population.

Friends of the Peacocks, a pro-peafowl group, won a delay in the implementation of the program in October when it argued in court that removal of the peafowl constituted an environmental change and required environmental study under the act. The city was restrained from further action by court order until the completion of the environmental assessment.

The trapping program will become effective in 30 days if there is no response from the opposition, said City Manager Gordon Ciebert.

The city’s peafowl, which numbered 67 at last count, were brought to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1923 by developer Frank Vanderlip Sr.