Teens Arrested for Killing Chickens: Nearly 1,000 Slaughtered With Golf Club on Farm
Teens were arrested Wednesday for killing chickens on a farm south of Fresno, California, according to reports. The four teenagers used a golf club and possibly other blunt instruments to slaughter nearly a thousand of the birds in a senseless act of violence.
The teens that were arrested for killing chickens committed the crime on Sept. 20 at a Foster Farms facility. Authorities believe they pulled back a fence on the property, snuck into a barn housing several thousand chickens and killed 920 of them at some point before 8:30 a.m. that morning.
Foster Farms put up $5,000 — the full value of the birds that were killed — as a reward for information leading to the perpetrators' arrest. The Fresno Sheriff's Department received tips and subsequently arrested 18-year-old Gabriel Quintero of Riverdale, two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old, according to the Associated Press.
Quintero was taken to Fresno County Jail, while the other three teens were transported to the Juvenile Justice Center. All of them were charged with burglary and felony cruelty to animals. Police have not released any motives or reasons why the youths decided to kill hundreds of chickens.
"This disturbs us all," Ira Brill, a Foster Farms spokesman, said Thursday. "It appears to be a very senseless act of animal cruelty."
It is unknown whether the chickens were egg-producing poultry or whether they were to be killed for meat. Brill said that not all the chickens in the barn were harmed. Foster Farms also released a statement regarding the massacre.
"It is the express policy of Foster Farms to treat its birds humanely and with compassion," the company said.
