[Update: A year or two after this report, the Key Largo Casino was shut down. As of July 2010, the building is there, still fenced off. While this complaint surely had nothing to do with it, we can still count this as a victory for the pigeons.] From: security curmudgeon To: Keylargocasino@lvcm.com, sales@keylargocasino.com Cc: NevadaSPCA[at]aol.com Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 20:05:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Report of animal abuse My girlfriend and I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas, NV. While there, we stayed at the Quality Inn Key Largo Hotel/Casino. Shortly after arriving, we noticed several pigeons that were rather mangled and had many missing or damaged feathers. The worst of the group was limping and clearly could not fly at all due to the damage to his wings and feathers. We found out a couple days later from a staff member of the hotel that the damage was done due to hotel cook staff throwing hot cooking grease on the birds "because they hated them". The staff member told us that several birds had died during the incident, and several others were hurt badly. During the day, the wounded pigeons can be found in trees near the swimming pool where they have found a source of water. At night, the most injured of the batch stays in a tree on the east side of the building (the middle of the three trees along the hotel). He can not fly into the tree, but he is able to walk up to a branch where he sleeps. While I understand that many people do not like pigeons and consider them a nuisance, throwing hot cooking grease on them is inexcusable. The staff member we spoke with said the employees responsible for the abuse were "yelled at" and nothing more. If this is how Key Largo responds to animal cruelty, rest assured we will not stay there again. Brian Martin Denver, CO ps: Nevada SPCA, I can provide pictures of the wounded pigeon if necessary. -- From: Nevadaspca[at]aol.com To: jericho[at]attrition.org Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 13:15:30 EDT Subject: Re: Report of animal abuse Thanks for your concern about the birds and their welfare. Please contact Clark County Animal Control with your firsthand account of what you witnessed and hopefully an animal control investigation will be triggered. Clark County Animal Control: 702-455-7710 Please also write directly to the management at Key Largo and request that they contact you back on how they plan to handle the matter. If they fail to take the matter seriously, then additional steps can be taken, including contacting the media. Thanks again for your concern. -- From: Mail Delivery Subsystem To: jericho[at]attrition.org Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 20:06:43 -0400 Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details The original message was received at Tue, 3 Aug 2004 20:05:46 -0400 from jericho@localhost ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- (reason: 550 : User unknown in local recipient table) (reason: 550 5.1.1 ... User unknown) -- From: security curmudgeon To: spraino@keylargocasino.com, rosalie@keylargocasino.com Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 20:11:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Report of animal abuse Mail to Keylargocasino@lvcm.com and sales@keylargocasino.com bounced due to bad addresses. These are listed as current contacts on the Key Large web page at http://www.keylargocasino.com/contactus.html. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: security curmudgeon To: Keylargocasino@lvcm.com, sales@keylargocasino.com Cc: NevadaSPCA[at]aol.com Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 20:05:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Report of animal abuse My girlfriend and I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas, NV. While there, we stayed at the Quality Inn Key Largo Hotel/Casino. Shortly after arriving, we noticed several pigeons that were rather mangled and had many missing or damaged feathers. The worst of the group was limping and clearly could not fly at all due to the damage to his wings and feathers. We found out a couple days later from a staff member of the hotel that the damage was done due to hotel cook staff throwing hot cooking grease on the birds "because they hated them". The staff member told us that several birds had died during the incident, and several others were hurt badly. During the day, the wounded pigeons can be found in trees near the swimming pool where they have found a source of water. At night, the most injured of the batch stays in a tree on the east side of the building (the middle of the three trees along the hotel). He can not fly into the tree, but he is able to walk up to a branch where he sleeps. While I understand that many people do not like pigeons and consider them a nuisance, throwing hot cooking grease on them is inexcusable. The staff member we spoke with said the employees responsible for the abuse were "yelled at" and nothing more. If this is how Key Largo responds to animal cruelty, rest assured we will not stay there again. Brian Martin Denver, CO ps: Nevada SPCA, I can provide pictures of the wounded pigeon if necessary.