‘It would be funny’: Man accused of stealing flamingo testifies he drank 30-40 beers that day

LAS VEGAS (KVVU/Gray News) - A man accused of stealing a flamingo from its Las Vegas Strip habitat took the stand at his own trial, saying he now realizes how big of a mistake it was.

Mitchell Fairbarn, 34, is facing two counts of animal cruelty after he allegedly stole a flamingo named Peachy from the Flamingo Hotel and Casino while drunk in March.

Police say Fairbarn, a tourist from Ontario, Canada, was seen on security camera around 5 a.m. March 3 hopping a fence to get inside the flamingo habitat. Fairbarn is accused of taking Peachy from the habitat and carrying the bird to his hotel room.

Peachy was injured in the incident. The flamingo’s treating veterinarian said the bird had seven to eight missing feathers, broken shafts and blood loss that were consistent with trauma. She added that Peachy needed antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and weeks of pain medication.

Prosecutors opened the trial with surveillance video, photos and Snapchat clips showing Fairbarn smiling, laughing and grabbing Peachy by the neck with two friends. The flamingo’s veterinarian called the video of Fairbarn grabbing Peachy by the neck inappropriate and potentially fatal.

Suspect testifies he thought the incident would be ‘funny’

Fairbarn took the stand Friday in his animal cruelty trial, testifying he took Peachy as a drunken “silly pranky joke” after drinking 30 to 40 beers. He denied malicious intent to hurt or kill the flamingo.

“Did you ever, at any time, have any malicious intent or desire?” his attorney asked. “Did you intend to kill?”

“No,” Fairbarn said.

During his testimony, Fairbarn said he lives in central Ontario, runs an excavation business started in 2014, is married and has three children. He said he grew up on farms, owns dogs and a parrot named Sonny and once rescued an abandoned llama and six ducks.

He mentioned being in Las Vegas for ConExpo, “a global construction show that happens every three years,” where he was asked to be “one of the representatives from Canada.”

Fairbarn also added that his father had been diagnosed with cancer in December 2025, and he was “on the fence about coming at all.”

He said he spent March 2 gambling and drinking an estimated 30 to 40 beers. He then stopped at the flamingo habitat around 5 a.m. – drunk, sleep-deprived and on a call. He mentioned entering the habitat to look at a bird with “uneven” wings while also acknowledging he shouldn’t go in.

Inside, he said he sat with one flamingo (not Peachy) then grabbed Peachy as a “silly pranky joke” to photograph, carried the bird to his room for “two or three minutes” put it in the hallway and was arrested changing to return it.

Fairbarn also mentioned being on house arrest. He has not been able to return to Canada since.

Under cross examination, he later admitted that the video “doesn’t look good,” and Peachy was hurt, saying “I’m taking responsibility” but claimed “I have no idea” how the feathers were lost.

The trial resumes Monday morning with closing arguments before jury deliberation.

Jury questions

The jury had several questions for Fairbarn.

Q: At the beginning of the video of the island, the birds are asleep and aren’t falling down. So the question is, if you know, do flamingos naturally, physically lay down?

A: They can, or when they’re doing the building nests and stuff.

Q: If the birds were in a resting, sleeping position, how could you tell the wings were uneven?

A: From where I was standing on the platform, on the main fence, one of their wings, one looked higher than the other.

Q: I just wanted clarification about the reasoning behind going into the exhibit initially. Was it because you saw a bird potentially in distress? Or was it to create a lasting memory of the trip?

A: The very intentional moment was to go see the bird that I thought looked funny. Ended up being to make it a funny trip while I was already there.

Q: At any point during your interacting with Peachy, did you notice his injuries or bleeding slash blood on your shirt or wall?

A: No.

Q: If someone hops your fence and enters your farm and hurts an animal that you own, what is your expectation of local law enforcement?

A: That’s a good question. I would say a proper investigation to ensure that an individual that took it actually is the one who harmed it.

Q: Is being intoxicated an excuse to hurt anything, either a man, a woman, an animal, regardless of intent?

A: No.

Q: What happened to the rescue ducks?

A: We got them in 2018, I believe. We had them for three years. We sold the property and the homeowners took them. Because they were living in one.

Q: How much do you drink on a typical day?

A: Not a lot. Nowhere near what I drank here.

Q: When you noticed a bird with its wings tucked, how did you know which bird to head for when you were on the island? Or how did you know it was the right bird?

A: From what I’d seen, once I got in there and walked up to it, that’s the one that I thought was the same one that I’d seen on the other side of the pink fence.

Q: When did you take off your shirt to wrap around Peachy’s body?

A: When I was leaving the exhibit, there’s waist-height hedges. That’s when I took my shirt off to wrap around the birds so the birds didn’t get bricked because they’re all perked.

Q: You stated you walked through the bushes. Did you sustain any scratches to your arms or your body?

A: Not that I remember. I don’t believe so.

Q: Can you clarify if you walked through the bushes while holding the bird?

A: Yes, I did.

Q: Was the bird healthy when you took it out of its habitat?

A: I did not see anything wrong with it when I took it.

Q: When the flamingo tucks its head under its wings to sleep, couldn’t that cause the wings to look uneven or could that cause the wings to look uneven?

A: For sure, yes.