“I guess I don’t regret it, because it’s like taking care of any rodent in town”
A Minnesota police chief admitted to beheading a five-year-old boy’s pet chicken with a shovel last month after a neighbor complained about the animal running through the neighborhood.
Ashley Turnbull, the mother of the boy, acknowledged that her son was in violation of a local ordinance but says the chief violated multiple laws, including trespassing on private property, when he decapitated the red hen.
“The chicken was like a puppy dog to my son,” Turnbull told West Central Tribune. “You wouldn’t do that to a puppy.”
Atwater Police Chief Trevor Berger, who left the severed head next to the boy’s chicken coop, defended his actions, citing the local ordinance as justification.
“It’s against city ordinance for a chicken to be in the city and running around in people’s yards,” Berger said. “I’m sorry it had to happen that way.”
Incredibly, Bergel added that he initially planned to shoot the chicken but decided not to after noticing children in the neighboring yard. After “10-15 minutes” of failing to catch the chicken, Bergel’s attention turned to a shovel leaned against Turbull’s garage.
“I feel like I made a good effort to get it back in,” Bergel said, wondering what all the “uproar” was about.
Berger also admitted that he “forgot” to inform the family, although claiming he originally intended to.
Turnbull’s fiancé Chris Gordon, recalled the phone conversation he had with Bergel later that day.
“I said, so you came to our home and killed our chicken with our shovel?” Gordon explained. “He said, ‘Yup. Any questions?’ That’s the thing that makes me mad.”
Turnbull has since filed a complaint with the city, demanding Berger apologize to her son at minimum.
“I still feel he owes my son an apology and he owes us a chicken,” Turnbull said.
According to Berger, the “chicken fiasco” would be brought up at a City Council meeting this coming Wednesday.
Atwater is a city in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,133 at the 2010 census. Wikipedia
http://www.atwaterchamber.com/city%20government.html
Police Chief Trevor Berger (320) 974-8900 [email protected]
Who is the real chicken?
BTW, birds are not rodents (but don’t tell the pigeons).
The one upside?
Another kid who will grow up to hate the state.
that chicken looks like a menace, that hero deserves a medal for his bravery under stressful conditions (end of sarcasm).
Naa.. they’d just shoot it instead and claim “officer protection”.