Woman who killed peacock with baseball bat planned to eat it for dinner

A woman in Hawaii charged with animal cruelty in the beating death of a peacock has taken the stand in court. She says a noise and mess problem had got out of hand and drove her to it. 70-year-old Sandra Maloney is on trial after admitting to killing a peacock with a baseball bat near the Makaha towers condominiums. It's an animal cruelty case, but the accused says it was the loud and messy birds doing the tormenting. "They go night and day and it's a cacophony. You can't even imagine," says Sandra Maloney.

She says she knew there were peacocks in the area before moving in but says her complaints to the board about their population growth went unanswered and the problem got out of hand. "The peacocks don't pay 600 dollars a month in maintenance fees," says Maloney. She says it began to take a toll on her after she says she couldn't get any sleep. "I didn't realize it was affecting me physically and mentally until I read an article that talked about how seniors need their sleep. I got to the point where I didn't want to go anywhere. I just wanted to stay in a hole. I became withdrawn and cranky," says Maloney.



She says she found one way to relieve the stress - chasing the critters carrying a child-size baseball bat. "It did make me get tired - tired enough to clear my angst for the moment. And I never expected that I would connect with one or catch one with any way," says Maloney. But that all changed one day in May 2009 when after chasing one peacock she returned to the condo to find what she describes as a whole meeting of peafowl in the condo barbecue area.

"And this one sitting up on top of the barbecue he didn't leave at all, he turned around and started to take a dump on the barbecue, I just lost it, I never knew I could move that fast. I leapt at him and grabbed him by the back," says Maloney. She says the peacock tried to leave but couldn't. "I swung at him with a baseball bat. I had ahold of him, I just did. I thought well I've got ahold of him I might was well take him home for dinner." Whether the jury agrees the kill was within acceptable animal control or hunting parameters remains to be seen. if convicted, she faces up to a year in prison.

With news video.