Dunfermline: Louis the peacock at risk due to injuries

Volunteers say he has shown great resilience by making a partial recovery after two boys aged 13 and 11 tortured the helpless animal in May 2022, killing fellow peacock Malcolm in the same incident at the Pittencrieff Park aviary.

Since then Louis has managed to father six offspring and the volunteers who look after the peacocks have nursed him as best they can. But now he’s struggling to cope with further injuries.

Volunteer Carlyn Cane said: “He’s been limping on and off for the past month now. He roosts up on a high bar and was getting to the point when he wouldn’t come down.

“This week he fell and damaged his tailbone. We took him to the vets on Monday morning and he’s not great at all.

“His injured leg is broken and they’ve taken the scales off down to the bone in three places.

“Because he’s compensating for that with his other leg, it’s putting a lot of pressure on both his joints, and they’re really inflamed. He’s on a hefty dose of painkillers.”

Carlyn is worried that Louis could suffer the same unfortunate fate as one of her previous birds. She said: “Charlie was a peahen that I reared at home. She slipped the tendon in her leg and had to be put to sleep.

“Louis is on floor rest, and he can’t roost because he’s at severe risk of rupturing the tendon and if that happens it’s game over.

Louis has been unable to roost on his usual high bar. (Image: Carlyn Cane)

Carlyn and the other volunteers invest a significant amount of time and energy looking after the peacocks, and it looks like it could become even more time consuming.

She said: “We try not to catch him every time if we can give him his medication in a bit of food, however he’s not been taking it that way.

“From tonight there will have to be two of us there because you can’t just open their mouth and pop it in, you need one to hold him and one to give him the medication down his throat.

"It means we’re limited in the staff that can deal with them, so I’ll be there almost every night.

“I went to B&M yesterday and bought him a dog bed. There’s also a big financial implication as well because his medicine and vet bills are not cheap. We just rely on donations and fundraising.”

It comes less than two months after Dunfermline’s peacocks became the first recipients of the freedom of the city.

Carlyn has grown close to Louis, especially after the attack, and added: “It’s really hard to watch him struggling like that and there’s not much we can do. He’s only five and he shouldn’t be suffering like this on a daily basis.

“If there is an improvement after two weeks of medication, then he will need lifelong painkillers and anti-inflammatories. If there’s no improvement, he’ll go back for further investigation.

“We’re just trying to keep him as comfortable as possible because he’s in a lot of pain. He’s captured everybody with his fighting spirit, but that is dwindling."