Doctors are being asked to evaluate the mental competency of a man arrested in connection with the death of Pinky the Flamingo.

  • Orlando man arrested for animal cruelty in Pinky the Flamingo's death
  • Joseph Corrao's attorney filed a competency motion
  • Defender says his client isn't mentally fit for trial  

The public defender representing Joseph Anthony Corrao, 45, filed a competency motion Tuesday stating that Corrao is mentally ill.

Corrao was with his mother, brother and three teenage children at Busch Gardens’ on August 2 when, for some reason, he allegedly reached into an animal pen and picked up a flamingo, Tampa public safety information coordinator Stephen Hegarty said in a statement.

He set down that flamingo uninjured, police said, but then picked up a second flamingo.

Other park-goers and Corrao's mother told him to leave the flamingos alone, police said.

Witnesses told police that Corrao then threw the second bird — later identified as Pinky the Dancing Flamingo — to the ground, which nearly led to the severing of the bird's foot. Hegarty said that because of the “excessive force” of the attack, the flamingo had to be euthanized.