Talk:Palace Pets/@comment-32284832-20180318013822/@comment-13112974-20180318135546

Peafowl were extensively raised by the Romans for both the table as well as for ornamental purposes. Medieval Europe carried on the barberous act of eating peafowl and it was only after the 1600th Century, when turkeys were imported from Mexico, that the peacock was discarded as a table bird for the more fleshy American birds. Fortunately, few of the peacock species are used for food today, except in some of the more remote and less civilized places where they are found in nature.

http://www.digitalvertebrae.com/fall06/daryllf/about_peacocks_hist.html