Man in China jailed for scaring neighbor’s 1,100 chickens to death amid feud

In China, a man was sentenced to six months in prison after scaring roughly 1,100 chickens to death over a disagreement with his neighbor.

The man with the last name Gu was imprisoned and fined in two separate occurrences and a curious court case, according to state-owned media, after scaring thousands of his neighbor’s poultry to death.

The conflict between the two was said to have started in April of last year when Gu got upset with his neighbor with the surname Zhong because he chopped down his trees without alerting him.

“Kill the chicken to scare the monkey,” is an old Chinese adage that roughly translates to “the best way to intimidate a big rival is to destroy a smaller one, which Gu appears to have taken too literally.

According to the state-owned China Daily newspaper, Gu’s objective was unclear, but one night he crept into Zhong’s property and shined a flashlight on the farm’s chickens, causing roughly 500 chickens to flee in a corner and crush one another to death.

He was then arrested by local police and compelled to pay Zhong 3,000 yuan ($436) in compensation.

Gu became more angry as a result, and he returned to Zhong’s farm and repeated the action, however this time it resulted in the death of 640 hens.

The 1,100 deceased hens were assessed to be worth a total of 13,840 yuan ($2,015) by Chinese authorities.

The court in Hengyang county, Hunan Province, delivered its judgement on Gu’s case.

According to China Daily, the court found him guilty of causing “property loss” on purpose and sentenced him to six months in prison with one year of probation.