Woman charged with animal abuse because her barking dogs gave neighbour's chicken a heart attack

Emotion overcomes Joy C. McDonald each time she pauses to think about what her future might hold. She could lose her job, her small rented home and custody of her three children — all because her two little dogs supposedly scared a neighbour’s elderly chicken to death.

According to McDonald, the penned bird apparently suffered a heart attack when her two Chihuahuas barked at it while running loose in their rural Lafayette County neighbourhood. Actually, court records accuse the dogs of killing the chicken but don’t describe how. The bird’s owner refused to recount his version of events.



The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office released only the department’s incident log, which confirms deputies were called to investigate on April 5. And the county prosecutor is saying little because the case remains unsettled. “There are photos with a poor dead chicken and feathers everywhere,” said Lafayette County Prosecutor Kellie Wingate Campbell.

The 29-year-old McDonald faces a misdemeanor charge of animal abuse for not controlling her Chihuahuas — Peaches and Domino — that together weigh about 5 pounds, or about as much as the average chicken sold for slaughter in Missouri last year. If convicted, McDonald could be sent to the county jail for a year or be fined as much as $1,000, or face both penalties. “I think this is asinine,” said McDonald, who lives just east of Odessa. “I just can’t wrap my mind around it. All of this because of a dead chicken.”

Full story with news video here.