Farmer Jailed For Killing Neighbor's Chickens

[matcom]

<snip>

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian court sentenced a farmer to a year in prison for stealing and killing 12 chickens, several chicks and a cat belonging to his elderly neighbor, local news agency Belga says.

The 30-year-old farmer, who runs a chicken farm in the western Belgian town of Detergem, asked a hunter to kill the creatures because he was fed up with his neighbor's free-range chickens running around on his property.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=2&u=/nm/20040420/od_nm/chickens_dc

[amazona]

1. gotta be more to this story than we're told

Taking away a man's freedom over some chickens and a cat? I dunno. I would be upset if someone killed my chickens, and both chickens and cats are creatures that are traditionally allowed to roam, but the proper punishment for a first-time offense of this kind (in my view) would be to assess a fine and also require the farmer to replace the chickens and the cat. Now if this man has been involved in some continual effort to harrass his elderly neighbor, it would be a bit more understandable that he be jailed.