Man Imprisoned for Scaring 1,100 Chickens to Death in Bizarre Neighbor Feud

A man in China has been jailed after authorities said he scared 1,100 of his neighbor's chickens to death during a feud with his neighbor. The man, identified only as Gu, sneaked onto his neighbor's farm and used a flashlight to startle the chickens. In the ensuing panic, hundreds of the animals were trampled to death. Read on to find out what happened in court. 

Feud Began Over Foliage

The feud between Gu and the chicken farmer, Zhong, began in April 2022, China Daily reported. Gu chopped down Zhong's trees without permission. Zhong's wife then towed the trees away, which made Gu resentful. Late one night, Gu visited Zhong's chicken farm and used a flashlight to scare the chickens. The frightened flock crowded into a corner, causing 460 of them to be trampled to death.

After that, Gu was required to pay Zhong 3,000 yuan ($400) in compensation, which only made the aggrieved man angrier. He returned to the farm and repeated the flashlight trick, causing an additional 640 chickens to be killed, China Daily reported. A court in Hengyang County, in central China's Hunan province, determined that the roughly 1,100 dead chickens were worth about $2,015 and ruled that Zu had intentionally caused property loss to Zhong. He was sentenced to six months in prison with a year of probation. The court noted he showed remorse for his behavior.

Social Media Responds

Commenters on CNN's tweet about the incident were largely amused. "I really expected to open the story and see this was in Calhoun County in Florida," one man said.  "As someone who lives near someone with chickens….I completely understand him," another commenter wrote.  "So the chickens were chicken???" another joked. "Police suspect fowl play," another said.

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A Neighbor Feud About Trash

That may be the strangest neighbor feud to be reported recently, but it's by no means the only one. In Texas, a woman is claiming a neighbor ran her over as part of an ongoing argument about trash. Last month, WFAA reported that one woman in Allen, Texas, generated a lot of trash during the holidays. Her trash cans were overflowing, so she decided to put some of her trash in her neighbor's trash cans. This caused a "brief verbal and physical altercation" between the two.

The woman says her neighbor pushed her to the ground twice during the argument, got into her vehicle, and slammed into the trash cans and the woman. She was arrested on January 13 on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. But the feud seems far from over. The injured woman said her neighbor has stolen water, screamed at her children, set branches at her doorstep, and thrown rocks at her vehicle in the past.