16th August 2010

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Brooklyn chicken murdered by possum

A murderous opossum may be on the loose in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, after chomping off the head of a beloved chicken.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that neighborhood resident Rose Unes, who has a chicken coop in her backyard, returned home from vacation last month to find that one of her two hens had been savagely decapitated and “left to die in a pile of blood-speckled feathers.”

Her friend Merritt Tucker, who was house-sitting during the incident, says that she noticed an opossum lurking at the scene of the crime.

“He was eyeing the other chicken,” she said. “He was waiting for the opportunity to go in and get the next one.”

Tags chickensBrooklynopossums

19th March 2009

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These chickens are going to court

Roswell, Georgia, resident Andrew Wordes is fighting for custody of the 13 chickens he keeps in his backyard. He considers them pets and, he tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the give him “unconditional love.” In the summer, they eat bugs in his fenced yard. In the winter, he feeds them oatmeal with raisins. Neighbors come over with egg cartons for Wordes to fill.

But, alas, apparently keeping chickens is against city law, and an anonymous complaint was filed (by someone jealous of the hens’ life of luxury?). Wordes must face Assistant City Attorney Bob Hulsey, whose views on pet chickens are stated thusly: “I’m old enough and Southern enough that all I remember is you pet chickens long enough to wring their necks.”

(Side note: check out the FRENZY in the comments section, including freshly-laid intel from commenter Chicken Whisperer.)

Tags birdsjusticechickens