A Canadian businessman facing four felony animal charges told jurors he drank 30 to 40 beers before snatching a flamingo named Peachy from a Las Vegas hotel habitat as a drunken prank.
Mitchell Fairbairn, 34, of Ontario, testified Friday in his own defense at the ongoing trial over the March 3 incident at the Flamingo Las Vegas. He said he never intended to harm the Chilean flamingo and called the episode a “silly pranky joke.”
Daily Mail reported that Fairbairn described a night of drinking and gambling on March 2 that stretched into the early morning. Around 5 a.m. he entered the hotel’s wildlife habitat, sat beside another flamingo, then picked up Peachy.
Surveillance described in court showed the shirtless tourist wrangling the bird by the neck and legs, wrapping it in his shirt, and carrying it through the hotel. Fairbairn said he kept the bird in his room for two or three minutes before leaving it in a hallway. He was arrested while changing clothes and said he was preparing to return the animal.
He faces four felony counts tied to the alleged torture, maiming, or killing of animals kept for companionship or pleasure. The jury has not yet ruled. Closing arguments were expected Monday, followed by deliberations.
Fairbairn acknowledged the footage “doesn’t look good” and that the bird was hurt. Asked whether he ever intended to harm Peachy, he answered flatly.
“No.”
He also said he was “taking responsibility” and insisted there was “no malicious intent.” When asked if he noticed injuries or blood on his shirt or the wall, he again said “No.” He claimed he had “no idea” how the bird lost some feathers.
Police recovered phone photos and videos. In one clip he reportedly laughed while saying he was “taking the bird home.” Investigators also found a “large bloody feather” in the hotel room. Animal control said Peachy’s wing was “pulled” from its body and needed stitches. Caesars Entertainment, which owns the Flamingo, earlier called the episode “deeply distressing” and said Peachy and other birds were receiving care from veterinarians and the hotel’s animal care team.
Fairbairn told police he tried to “pop” the wing back into place, claiming it is common practice for birds such as ducks and that he knew this because he is a “farm boy.” Jurors pressed him on that explanation. One asked what he would expect if someone entered his own farm and injured an animal.
Fairbairn has been on house arrest since the incident and has been unable to return to Canada. He is married with three children and described himself as an Ontario businessman asked to represent Canada at ConExpo, an international construction exhibition. His father was diagnosed with cancer in December 2025, and Fairbairn said he had been “on the fence about coming at all.”
He testified he owns a parrot named Sonny and has rescued an abandoned llama and six ducks in the past. Those details did not erase the surveillance images or the bloody feather police recovered.
Wildlife crime cases keep turning up far from Las Vegas. Mexican military raids near the U.S. border recently uncovered 135 exotic animals, including Bengal tigers and jaguars, during fuel-smuggling operations.
Fairbairn was asked whether being intoxicated excused hurting a person or an animal. He answered “No.”
Prosecutors and defense lawyers will make their final pitches, then the jury will decide whether a night of heavy drinking and a hotel flamingo stunt crosses into felony animal harm. Similar enforcement fights appear in other protected-species cases, including charges against two people accused of smuggling exotic reptiles across the border in pillowcases.
The Flamingo’s wildlife habitat sits on the Las Vegas Strip as a tourist draw. Fairbairn’s own account puts him inside that enclosure after dozens of beers, removing a named bird, and carrying it through the hotel wrapped in a shirt. Police and animal control described injuries and physical evidence that do not match a harmless joke.
Authorities elsewhere have also moved to free protected animals when traffickers bolt. Bali police freed green sea turtles after smugglers fled a raid, another reminder that exotic creatures are not disposable props.
Fairbairn’s testimony tried to cast the episode as a farm-boy attempt to fix uneven wings and a photo prank gone wrong. The recovered media, the bloody feather, the wing that needed stitches, and the four felony counts are what the jury must weigh against that story.
Harm to protected wildlife draws official heat in the United States as well. Louisiana wildlife officials offered thousands for information after a bald eagle was shot dead, underscoring that cruelty cases do not stay buried.
Drunken tourists do not get a free pass to treat living animals like casino souvenirs. Personal responsibility still applies on the Strip, and the jury will decide whether Fairbairn’s prank crossed the line into felony harm.
