GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - A Grand Island animal shelter is caring for nearly 50 malnourished chickens after a police officer discovered them in the back of an SUV during a traffic stop.
Grand Island Police Sgt. Bud Edwards discovered the chickens in the back of the vehicle around 1 a.m. Friday, after he pulled it over for driving in the dark without headlights, The Grand Island Independent reported (https://bit.ly/1i45KRb ) Saturday.
Edwards said he noticed “a couple of chickens sitting on the back seat” when he approached the SUV. The birds had apparently escaped from a makeshift cage in the back of the vehicle, he said. Upon further inspection, Edwards found nearly 100 chickens in the vehicle, but about half of them were dead.
The driver, 36-year-old Luis Motola-Palacio of Grand Island, was arrested on suspicion of a second offense of driving drunk.
The live birds were taken to the Central Nebraska Humane Society, the newspaper reported, where officials determined the birds hadn’t been fed properly and that many were missing feathers.
“This is a first,” Humane Society executive director Laurie Dethloff said. “When I took this job, I never thought I’d be helping move chickens in the snow at three in the morning.”
Officials are weighing animal cruelty charges against Motola-Palacio, who is set to be sentenced on Feb. 25 for an assault conviction. Authorities say Motola-Palacio shot another man in the thigh with a shotgun during an argument as they and others were slaughtering pigs near a residential garage in the city.
Officials are also trying to determine whether Motola-Palacio violated city ordinances. It is against city code for anyone other than a commercial sales or nonprofit education facility to have more than four hens per acre of land. City law also prohibits any residential property from having more than 64 birds over age 6 months at any one time.
A phone number for Motola-Palacio could not be found.
___
Information from: The Grand Island Independent, https://www.theindependent.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.