Officials at the Oregon Zoo are re-evaluating their peacock policy after one of the free-roaming birds scratched a four-year-old boy's face Saturday.

The peacock policy could change soon, after discussion this week.

Cyrus Vafi said the peacock attacked his son near the zoo's train depot without being provoked.

"My son was watching the peacock when all of a sudden without warning it jumped up, latched onto his face, then let go," said Vafi.

Cooper suffered scratches around his eyes, on his eyelids, forehead and behind his ears.

Photos: Boy's scratched face

"I was so grateful that his eye didn't get poked out or scratched harshly," said Cooper's mother, Celeste Vafi. "When you see that long scratch behind his ear, you realize how quick something like that can happen."

About two dozen peacocks roam freely around the Oregon Zoo as they have for decades. Curious about the bird's history, Vafi said he went home and searched "peacock attack" on the Internet.

"An article popped up from KGW.com in 2006 and talked about another toddler who'd been scratched by one of those peacocks," said Vafi. "I couldn't believe it... it's not as if they didn't know that this could happen."

2006 incident: Toddler attacked by peacock over piece of candy

Oregon Zoo Director Tony Vicchio admitted that two peacocks had lashed out on two separate occasions in 2006. In one instance, he said a two-year-old boy received deep scratches on his arm after he and a peacock went after the same piece of candy on the ground.

Vecchio said the other bird had been provoked when a child chased after it. The zoo relocated two birds to farms in the country and looked at the incidents as isolated.

"As far as I knew, that was kind of the end of the problem and we didn't have any other problems until (Saturday)," said Vecchio. "I've told the staff to round this peacock up and we'll put him in a time-out for a while until we figure out what to do next."

Vecchio said solutions could range from relocating the peacock in question to a country farm, to enclosing all peacocks at the zoo to keep them away from visitors. The latter option is something Vecchio said the zoo considered implementing in 2006, but didn't, after he said the public strongly opposed doing so.

The Vafis suggested placing signs around the zoo warning parents to beware of the peacock's feisty nature, or perhaps having a volunteer monitor the peacocks. Whatever the zoo decides, Vecchio said it will be in the public's best interest.

"If we're going to have peacocks here we can't have this happening," he said, adding the zoo was very sorry for what happened to Cooper.

Cyrus Vafi said by Sunday, Cooper's face was healing nicely, but he was still quite traumatized by the incident.

"He told me, 'Dad, don't tell me the bird attacked me, I don't want to hear it,'" said Vafi. "It was about 10:30 last night before we could get both our kids to sleep."

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