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This birdbrain’s guilty.
The drunken Canadian tourist who stole a beloved flamingo from a Las Vegas casino, taking photos with his hands around the bird’s neck, was convicted of animal cruelty charges on Monday.
A jury convicted Mitchell Fairbarn, 34, for the fowl negligence after he stole “Peachy” from the Flamingo Hotel and Casino during a bender in Sin City on March 3, Fox 5 Vegas reported.
Fairburn, a married father of three from central Ontario, testified in court that he was in Vegas for a work trip in the construction trade when he got sloshed.
He said he knocked back “30 to 40” drinks while walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, gambling before he came across the flamingo habitat around 5 a.m. the next day.
The bird was snatched and brought to his room as a “silly joke,” Fairburn told the court, who was seen on video evidence displayed in court laughing and grabbing the poor bird by the neck.
“I thought it was something that we could joke about for the rest of our lives,” Fairbarn said in court, according to 8 News Now.
But despite Fairbairn’s claims of lighthearted fun, Peachy was discovered injured by a facilities engineer at the hotel, according to testimony.
In court, Fairbarn, who pleaded not guilty ahead of the trial, admitted that the bird was hurt and said “I’m taking responsibility,” though added he didn’t know how the bird’s feathers went missing.
Defense attorney Joshua Tomsheck went as far as to call his client a “moron,” but denied he set out to do anything malicious.
“If he wanted to kill Peachy, Peachy would be dead,” Tomsheck said.
The blasted birdsnatcher was found guilty on one count of felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty after five hours of deliberation, the outlet reported.
Fairbarn is due back in court for sentencing on Dec. 3.