Post by JoannaL on Jun 28, 2019 10:11:53 GMT -5
Flamingo Killer Hit and Killed by Truck
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A man who garnered international outrage after he was accused of killing “Pinky,” the popular dancing flamingo at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay was hit and killed by a truck earlier this month. Joseph Anthony Corrao, 48 (above), died June 5 when he was hit while crossing State Road 50 near his Orlando-area home just before 6 a.m. The driver of the pickup wasn’t injured.
In August 2016, while visiting Busch Gardens with his family, Corrao reached into Pinky’s pen, grabbed the 19-year-old flamingo and slammed her to the ground, injuring the bird so seriously she had to be euthanized.
Pinky became an internet sensation in 2011 when the park published a video of her dancing the “Flamingo Flamenco.” Pinky’s dancing was not something learned, but natural, her keepers said, because flamingos use their feet to stir up the water when feeding. Flamingos are filter feeders, using their beaks to strain food from the water. “Pinky liked to dance and when she was getting the attention she wanted, she would start dancing in circles,” Karen Varga-Sinka of Busch Gardens said at the time. “She was the sweetest thing.”
Corrao had a lengthy criminal history, having served approximately three years in prison after being convicted of crimes that included aggravated assault on a person 65 years or older, felony DUI and fleeing a law enforcement officer. He also had been arrested for killing his neighbor’s two dogs.
According to court records, Corrao served six years in the army and lived on SSI (Supplemental Security Income) he received for alleged disabilities.
Found incompetent to stand trial for killing the flamingo, he was ordered to undergo in-home competency training and eventually, in March 2019, was deemed competent. He was killed before he could be tried.
Source: Andrew Krietz, WTSP, June 25, 2019.
