Boy’s screaming kills chickens
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in eastern China – and a court
has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old
boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog.
According to a local newspaper, the bizarre sequence events began when
the boy arrived at a village home in the eastern province of Jiangsu in
the summer with his father who was delivering bottles of gas.
A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the hen house
window, screaming for a long time, after being scared by the dog.
“One neighbour told police that he had heard the boy’s crying that
afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the hen
house window,” the newspaper said.
A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal
sound” and that the 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.
The boy’s father was ordered to pay around ?117 in compensation to the
owner of the chickens.
