Sugar, a white peacock who lived among neighbors in Pasadena, was attacked in August. Video shared widely online appears to show a United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier hitting the bird with a rock at least two times, then striking Sugar with a stick.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has now charged the carrier with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. If convicted, the carrier could face as much as a year behind bars in county jail, plus a fine as high as $20,000. That charge matters, and it needs to be seen all the way through.

Sugar was lucky. Pasadena Humane took the bird in and gave Sugar medical care. Today Sugar is healthy again and living on a ranch in Northern California. But a happy ending for one bird doesn’t erase what happened. Animals can’t speak up for themselves, so they depend on the justice system to treat violence against them as the serious crime it is.

USPS has said it is “reviewing the incident and gathering the facts,” according to NBC Los Angeles, and noted that carriers in the area have run into aggressive peacocks before. Those safety concerns are real and deserve real solutions. Violence isn’t one of them.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office should pursue this case fully and fairly in court. USPS should publicly share what action it takes once its review is done, and make clear that harming animals on a mail route will never be acceptable.

Sign the petition to tell the Los Angeles County District Attorney and USPS that cruelty to animals must have consequences, while this case is still in front of the court.