About 50 baby pink flamingos stolen from Hialeah racetrack grounds may find themselves for sale on the black market soon, if the thieves aren’t caught.
The crime at Florida’s popular horseracing venue, known for its beautiful flocks of bright pink birds, occurred earlier in the week.
“This is our history, our legacy out here,” the track’s outraged vice-president Dennis Testa told an ABC News affiliate. “The birds have been here forever.”
Testa has worked for Hialeah Park in one capacity or another since 1958 and said he’s never seen anything to compare with this month’s brazen bird burglary -- in all those years not a single flamingo has been taken before.
A spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed that the matter of the 50 missing pink flamingo chicks is now the subject of a major criminal investigation, after evidence emerged indicating their sudden disappearance was the result of human interference.
He said trafficking exotic species like flamingos is “ a very profitable thing to be involved in.”
The baby birds are estimated to be worth between $500 to $1000 each on the black market … if they live.