A Florida man has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty after investigators said he killed his neighbor’s pet rooster.
Jacksonville resident James Nix told Action News Jax that he was checking his mail in mid-May when his neighbor’s rooster began attacking him.
“I just checked my mail and turn around and go, and I hear, ’Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!’ And I turn around, and there’s a chicken out there in the street. I said, ’Oh boy, here we go.’” he recalled. “Turn around, walk to my place – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang – now the chicken’s in my yard! Now its neck flares up.”
Nix said he picked up a stick in the yard and attempted to hit the rooster in self-defense, but with the rooster jumping at him, he accidentally knocked the bird in the head, killing it.
“I didn’t know to give it a 21-gun salute!” Nix said. “CPR? Mouth-to-mouth? You know, or call the chicken ambulance?”
However, the pet’s owner, James Defelice, doesn’t believe Nix’s story. He told Action News Jax he thinks Nix killed his pet on purpose.
“I didn’t see my rooster at first, so I knew something was up because he would always come chase me,” Defelice said. “Then, I went in [Nix’s] yard and yelled at him, and he finally came out and said he killed it.”
Defelice said children in the neighborhood told him that Nix, who lives across the street from him, had beaten the rooster to death. He contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and then called animal control.
“Next thing you know, he calls the chicken police on me,” Nix said.
After animal control officers investigated, Nix was apprehended for animal cruelty and spent 30 hours in jail.
Nix said he still doesn’t understand why his neighbor called the police on him over a dead rooster.
“Chickens die every day, people — at Church’s, Popeyes, Kentucky Fried Chicken, really.”
