Waterford Country School is fundraising to build a new, larger home for their peacock, Paulie, and his growing family. The school rescued Paulie in Connecticut back in 2018.
Paulie the Peacock is not afraid to put on a show for both students and staff at Waterford Country School, which specializes in interactive education, specifically through nature.
“We incorporate our farm and outdoor education program into our special education school, our foster care programs for families,” Waterford Country School Director of Outdoor Education Ben Turner said.
Like many of the school’s animals, Paulie is a rescue, but he first started gaining notoriety in southeastern Connecticut back in 2018.
“People were really taken with this peacock, they would walk out from a doctor’s appointment and see him on their car or they’d come out of their house and be like, 'Huh? a giant peacock is just sitting on their doorstep,'” Waterford Country School Assistant Director of Development Elena French said.
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She said Paulie was seemingly everywhere that summer, sitting on top of cars and outside people’s homes.
“It’s why they call him Paulie the Pesky Peacock,” Turner said.
The problem was that back then, Paulie didn’t have a home to call his own.
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“There was no farm that contacted anybody that said they lost a peacock, so we went out and did what we could,” Turner said.
That's where the staff at Waterford Country School stepped in.
“Our farm team really worked with a lot of other people to try over that summer to see if they could snag him and bring him somewhere safer and ever since, he’s been a character here,” French said.
Six years later, Paulie is now a family man with two young offspring. He currently shares the original enclosure with five others, so he’s in the market for a larger space.
“This enclosure here was the best we could do at the time with our funding and now our development team is working really hard with the community to raise money for a bigger flight enclosure,” Turner said.
The school is working to raise $11,500 to go towards a new palace for Paulie and his family.
“We want the best for our animals just like we want the best for our kids so we try to provide them with the best special education and housing for our boarding students here and our shelter program so, very lucky that the farm is part of that mission,” Turner said.
