Police chief decapitates boy's pet chicken

Sad, but demonstrably true.

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Right! The american dream is financial success: all wheel drive BMWs that never leave asphalt; while farmers drive beat up pick up trucks and work until their bodies give out.

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That chicken had a record as long as my arm, Iā€™ll bet.

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Meme requires photoquote of New Yorker Cartoon;

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Which came first, the chicken or the cop?

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Question was the chicken a reporter?

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If only.

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Fat chance of that happening. Not for one of The Heroes.

Cops are scum.

Yepā€¦ I vote we follow this shithead around with a shovel and wait for him to commit a minor infraction.

Iā€™d be in prison if I saw this happen because I WOULD attack the cop.

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Not that the definitions of such shitty things matter, but I believe those bits of a taser are called ā€˜barbsā€™.

Iā€™d literally celebrate if someone took a shovel to this guy.

Iā€™m a member of Ferrets Anonymous. As a person who longs to once again have a pet ferret, and lives in California where they are illegal and may be taken from you (at one point they were then euthanized, now they get dropped over the border), I do realize this was really traumatic for the family.

That said, I hope people are reading the full article - not just the comments or the BB shorthand. The owner of the bird had already been told at a city council meeting to remove it and others from her premises. She was well-aware they broke the law (but says she found that out after purchasing them). She also wasnā€™t keeping them penned well - they were getting out.

When the officer was called, it was in response to a complaint that the bird was out, and he found it in a neighboring yard. He chased it from there back into the ownerā€™s yard - where no one was home. He didnā€™t initially enter the back yard to go looking for the bird - he followed it there. He only killed the one bird that had gotten out - even though other illegal birds were penned in the yard, so clearly this wasnā€™t an officer looking to just wantonly kill all the illegal birds at the residence.

Also, he reported there were kids next door, and thatā€™s why he didnā€™t use a gun (also, heā€™d previously been called to handle other animals, like skunks, and treated this as a similar incident). He took the body with him, and it sounds like he dropped the head unintentionally. He wasnā€™t trying to cause the family undue pain.

So, while it may feel good to rally against this officer for ā€œheartlessly killing that poor chickenā€, itā€™s probably a good idea to keep things in perspective. The woman compared the bird to puppy, and realistically speaking, a dog on the loose might also get killed. Most cities have leash laws.

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That is not his job. All your other words miss the point.

Iā€™m sure Chief Chicken Killer can mount his own defense, o noble paladin.

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Absolutely ridiculous. I would like to see him pester that skunk.

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This asshole killed a harmless animal that posed a threat to no one, left no message that he had done so, left the head in the yard, when called by the father responded like a complete asshole ā€œyup, any questionsā€, andā€¦ andā€¦ he has in his possession a report that will outline ALLOWING residential chickens that he himself is giving to the city council, making the whole thing feel even more senseless.

But youā€™re absolutely right about keeping things in perspective. My perspective is heā€™s a sadistic, irresponsible, stupid incompetent blowhard that should be fired immediately as a danger and embarrassment to his town. And yeah, Iā€™ll be keeping that perspective I think.

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I believe the owners should have been responsible and ensured their animals were properly penned. On the other hand, a loose chicken does not constitute an immediate emergency requiring beating to death and decapitation. And he would have shot it if children hadnā€™t been playing in the next yard? Absolutely ridiculous.

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Well, hereā€™s the problem with that argument. Even a dog in Atwater, MN can be killed by a total stranger (not even police, and not even threatening a human) under the right circumstances.

347.03. Dogs may be killed

Any owner or caretaker may kill any dog found chasing, injuring, or worrying sheep or other livestock or poultry owned by or in care of such owner or caretaker, on lands or premises owned or controlled by the owner or caretaker, and any owner or caretaker of sheep may kill any dog found on the ownerā€™s or caretakerā€™s premises where sheep are kept, not under human restraint or control.

CREDIT(S)
Amended by Laws 1986, c. 444.

Not only that, in the County of Kandiyohi (where Atwater is), they have given police control of animals on the loose. They have no separate Animal Control. Hereā€™s the link. Articles (1 & 2) discuss the situation here. I definitely realize you may not interpret a chicken as ā€œdangerousā€ - however, a neighbor called for police assistance, and there were children in the yard. We werenā€™t there, and donā€™t know what happened. (Fowl are considered ā€œdomestic animalsā€ see: definitions: ā€œiā€)

To be clear: Iā€™m not saying ā€œOh yeah, he definitely should have shot that bird.ā€ Iā€™m saying he was the person who was supposed to be called, and the person given the authority (since 2009, cutbacks anyone?) to handle out-of-control animals.

Maybe what this town really needs is an actual Animal Control department.

P.S. Raise your hands how many people calling this a ā€œharmlessā€ bird have ever actually dealt with chickens? Seriously, have any of you ever actually hung around a few of them? I have a friend whose mom raises them to sell the eggs - chickens are not all ā€œnice birdiesā€.

While he killed the chicken the way millions of them are killed every year (decapitation), there should be a huge problem with accessing the property, and consequently handling then destroying that property, without a warrant. I guess my question would be did he have a warrant?

Bullshit. Iā€™ve been around a half dozen different groups of chickens (of all different breeds) over the course of my life. My dad once had one that would literally peck at the door at night, then come in to warm up in front of the heater before roosting over a tub that was erected just for him. And that was a rooster.

Iā€™ve also been around defensive cocks who try to peck at you or jump claws-first. While they might be dangerous to a child or a person laying on the ground, most of them are easily ā€˜dispatchedā€™ by lobbing them away with your foot, or charging at them the way they do.

I understand that this is anecdote, no matter how much experience I have with them, but itā€™s to balance out your own anecdotal account of, apparently, murderous chickens.

On the other hand, I have never heard of or seen a defensive hen.

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