Actually, no. The bird was outside of the property when he received the call, and he then followed the bird BACK ONTO the property. The same exclusion would apply to a dog.
Go back, and reread what I wrote. I didn’t say the bird was “murderous” so please refrain from trying to put words into my mouth. What I said was:
and they aren’t. Some peck, some fly at you, and some people (particularly small children) are afraid of them. As I also said:
Because the police officer didn’t go on a chicken-killing rampage, offing every bird, illegally kept in that yard (four others remained, in pens), he was showing some level of restraint. Since we weren’t there, we really can’t know what exactly happened at the time.
It’s terrible, but this reminds of of the sketch from the old Nickelodeon show “All That” where this guys has a chicken pet store, but tells everyone who comes in that chickens make terrible house pets.
Well, you did use the phrase ‘out of control’ in your wider exposition. This expression has no place in a technical discussion since its interpretations are as wide ranging as the medical one ‘in a stable condition’. Out-of-control could be read as murderous. But a dead chicken is also somewhat out-of-control. And also dependent upon the object, an out of control animal may range from an out of control elephant to an out of control rabbit (Monty Python notwithstanding, Holygrailwise).
In any event I think we all know what this is really about:
… clubbed, killed and decapitated a small, red hen with a shovel
From the sound of it, you probably had the capacity to understand that the foxes and owls were just doing what foxes and owls do. Reasonable people expect human beings, especially the Chief of Police, to exercise a little control of their volitions.
And as to the emotional recovery, it appears to have left you so well adjusted that your posts in this thread amount to:
Hey, now, according to some folks in these here parts, any ordinance violation is totally an arrestable offense, so that mom got off easy with just having her son’s chicken executed. There could’ve been lawyer costs and time in jail involved (which means CPS takes your kid away if you can’t come up with a suitable babysitter within 10 seconds of the cuffs getting slapped on ya).
I suppose I am being more flippant than I should here because its altogether possible this boy loved his chickens.
But I find it somewhat dubious that they weren’t more of a gift rather than a pet given that the chickens are kept in a small muddy cage and regularly escape, it seems like a significant likelihood that a woman somewhat embarrassed that she is 1. breaking the law, 2. annoying her neighbors, 3. keeping chickens in a mudhole, from which they escape. is crying “Think about the children.” to cover her ass.
@Nelsie - read five posts up. He’s Animal Control for the county.
@IronEdithKidd Yeah, I know it’s an arrestable offense. I didn’t bother to explain that earlier because people already thought I was cold-hearted.
14 Penalty. Any person found in violation of this ordinance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a maximum term of 90 days in jail or a fine up to $1,000 or both. A second or subsequent violation shall be punished by a minimum fine of $500, and a term of jail not less than 1 day.
The officer didn’t ticket or fine the family in any way for the loose bird. If he was really trying to a jerk, he would have killed the bird, and then ticketed a parent.
I’m sorry for the snark, but I live somewhere where real crimes happen fairly regularly. We don’t effectively have Community Standards enforcement because of real crime. Arresting someone for a property ordinance violation is so officiously petty, that it’s difficult for me to accept that it might actually happen anywhere. Yet, there was that guy in NC just this week. If your community is so safe and tidy that police officers have time and resources available to arrest people for ordinance violations, then I humbly suggest the police force requires budget cuts. Immediately.
Where I live, officers are also quite busy with “real crime”. Even so, they’ll still find the time to detain photographers, and become art critics. The fact is that, no matter where you live, there are bound to be local laws on the books that officers have to deal with.
I already made the (very serious) suggestion that this ordinance probably came about because of budget cuts. It was in 2009 that the law was changed to make the police force deal with loose and dangerous animals. At that time, they also named the Sheriff (or his designee) the person in charge of Animal Control. It sounds quite a bit like budget cuts got rid of Animal Control in Atwater, MN.
Sometimes slashing budgets isn’t the right answer.
"Much of the criticism wasn’t directed at Berger for decapitating the chicken, but against homeowner Ashley Turnbull, who filed the complaint against the police chief.
“This is nothing more than bullying,” screamed one woman, referring to Turnbull’s complaint."
