PAHRUMP, Nev. (KTNV) — Once a notorious madam, now a very mad woman! Heidi Fleiss is furious after she says someone shot one of her pet birds with a BB gun in Pahrump.
13 Action News talked to Fleiss on Thursday and found out she’s so upset, she wants to leave Nevada.
The sound of exotic birds screeching is the new soundtrack to Heidi Fleiss’s life. The former "Hollywood Madam" now lives with about 30 of them in her house on the outskirts of Pahrump.
"The most amazing times of my life have been right here with these birds and what I've learned from them," Fleiss told 13 Action News.
Fleiss traded in her life in the public eye years ago for a more peaceful one with her feathered friends in Pahrump. But she says someone shattered that peace last week on New Year's Eve.
"In the evening, they usually go exploring down below in the subdivision, they have their secret world. And when she came home to bed, she went up where she sleeps next to her mate, and she fell, which is odd because she's like a Porsche in the sky. And when I went to pick her up, with her beak she held on to me, so she wouldn't put pressure on her foot, so I knew something was wrong," Fleiss said.
An x-ray revealed her beloved 5-year-old macaw, Chuey, had been shot in the leg with a BB gun.
"To see something like that, that's so beautiful and adds so much beauty to the world, that someone just wants to hurt, is disgusting," Fleiss said.
Now, Chuey has at least eight rods in her leg, and her life is still hanging in the balance. Fleiss is demanding justice.
"The only way to stop stuff like this is to make them register, like sex offenders, to have an animal abuser list. And that way the parents will be aware, because they don't, when their kid goes to college, they don't want them on the animal abuser list. That's the only way to derail this kind of activity," said Fleiss.
Fleiss won't be waiting around to see if justice is served. She says she's moving to Missouri so her birds can enjoy the trees of the Ozarks, away from what she calls the "creeps and rednecks" of Pahrump.
"I still try to make it work here, thinking I involve the community below with the birds. Most of them love them. They love seeing them, but I guess with COVID, an influx of people here, that it's just different and they don't feel the same way," Fleiss said.
