Heidi Fleiss’ Las Vegas residency goes to the birds
Heidi Fleiss bought a house in Las Vegas this year with plans to move there with her exotic birds.
But after complaints were raised in her new neighborhood about her parrots, Fleiss said she will sell the house rather than comply with county rules that would force her to keep her beloved birds confined.
“Animal control wants my birds in cages, so I have to sell,” Fleiss told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Friday in a text message.
Fleiss, 60, closed on a home near Sunset Park, though her arrival in the neighborhood has caused waves, at least with one neighbor.
Fleiss, who has been in the process of moving from Pahrump, which has been her home since 2009, owns over two dozen exotic birds. She said one of her new neighbors complained to Clark County officials about the noise the birds make.
It has put a damper on Fleiss’ plan to create a bird habitat of sorts in her new backyard, already a lush area with palm trees, posh desert landscaping and plenty of cactus plants.
On a recent March afternoon in her new backyard, Fleiss spoke about her affinity for the birds she cares for. The long-sleeved shirt she wore was scarred with small rips and tears, which were from her birds, she said.
As she talked, one of the four macaws at her house that day, a bird named Gin, stopped to rest on her shoulder. Macaws are members of the parrot family.
“Hello, hi, Ginny,” Fleiss said to the bird. “Look at you, look at you, look at you.” In response, the bird let out a “raaaaaaak.”
Fleiss also has a macaw named Juice and, yes, the pair are named after the Snoop Dogg song that quickly became a hit after it was released in early 1994.
Dozens of birds at Pahrump house
As Fleiss talked, Gin continued to wiggle around and poke at her shoulder and arm.
“When I moved to Pahrump, I happened to move next door to a former madam who used to run the exotic bird program at the Tropicana hotel,” Fleiss said. “She had a bird named Dalton in a cage, and I asked when was the last time that Dalton had been out of that cage. She said it had been about 25 years. Right then, I decided I didn’t care about rich people having sex. I knew I had something else to do with my life.”
Back at her place in Pahrump — she has been maintaining both homes — Fleiss houses over two dozen other birds. She said she has dedicated her life to helping to make sure her birds live good lives.
According to Clark County records, Fleiss closed on the Las Vegas home in February. She said an official from Clark County Animal Protection Services stopped over this month to give her a pair of citations related to her birds.
According to Clark County code, it’s “unlawful for any person to keep” poultry or birds “that have the inherent ability to fly and are not, at all times, confined within a suitable outbuilding, coop, or enclosed runway.”
For Fleiss, that’s a nonstarter. She said she believes birds need to be free. She said her birds in Las Vegas usually fly to Sunset Park and back to her backyard once per day.
Referring to her Las Vegas house, Fleiss said in a text message Friday that she’s “going to try to list it next week.”
According to an email from Clark County spokeswoman Jennifer Cooper, the county this month notified the owner of the property with Fleiss’ address that a noise complaint had been received. The county, Cooper said, also received a complaint about free-roaming macaws within a “bird strike area.”
Fleiss said the complaints came from her neighbor, Shauna Cordova. In a media report this month, Cordova said she did contact the county over her concerns.
“I was hoping I would come here and my birds would be friends with her,” Fleiss said. “The seller told me everyone around here was cool with birds. That’s what I was told. I don’t want to bring trouble to anyone.”
Cordova, in a text message, declined to comment for this story.
‘The Hollywood madam who set free the birds’
Janie Englestead, who lives a few houses away from Fleiss, said she doesn’t know of anyone in the neighborhood except for the one neighbor who has had an issue with the birds.
“We’ve been here since 1976,” Englestead said. “We have fantastic neighbors, and we’ve never really had any issues. I was surprised when I got a letter in the mail, with chocolates in the mailbox, from Heidi asking that nobody hurt her birds.”
Because of Fleiss’ handwriting, Englestead said she couldn’t make out who the letter was from, but there was a number, so she called the number.
“When she said her name, I didn’t acknowledge it because it doesn’t matter to me,” Englestead said. “Of course, I knew the name, but it wasn’t relevant to me. If she’s nice to me, I’m going to be nice to her. She had us over, and she was very warm with us.”
Since she moved to Pahrump over two decades ago, Fleiss has faced difficult times. In 2022, she offered a $5,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest of the person who she said shot one of her parrots.
After that incident, she said she had plans to move to Missouri, but those plans fell through. Fleiss said the current situation in her new neighborhood has reminded her of more rocky times in her life.
“It feels surreal, just like when I was arrested for that sex business,” Fleiss said. “Those were adults making adult decisions. You see all this stuff now about Jeffrey Epstein and people like that, well, I never had anyone ask me for an underage girl. My birds, they just want to fly.”
Fleiss said she knows people will always remember her for her Hollywood madam days, but she said she is focused now only on her birds.
“I see way beyond myself,” Fleiss said. “People remember criminals. I’ve been on the cover of Time magazine. My legacy, I hope, is helping the birds. The Hollywood madam who set free the birds.”
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
