PALM BAY, Fla. – A man staying at a Palm Bay house was arrested Monday after he was witnessed ripping the head off one of his host’s pet parakeets, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim told deputies the man had been at the home for about a week before he began to act “irate and not himself, possibly on an unknown drug,” with his speech and movement patterns described as incoherent and strange, a probable cause affidavit said.
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Deputies said the victim told them the man brought a bird cage into the residence’s front yard where he threw it on the ground, breaking the cage and freeing one bird before the man grabbed a second bird and “decapitated it by using his hands to rip the head off the body,” deputies said.
According to the affidavit, the man also caused a combined $105 in property damage throughout the home and continued to behave aggressively after being placed in a Palm Bay Police Department patrol vehicle.
He faces charges of felony animal cruelty and criminal mischief under $200. The man is currently awaiting trial in the Brevard County jail on $2,500 bond.