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For crying out loud

Chinese court rules boy’s screaming led to the death of dozens of chickens

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updated 5:29 a.m. ET Jan. 24, 2007

BEIJING - Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in eastern China — and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a 4-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported Wednesday.

The bizarre sequence of events began when the boy arrived at a village home in the eastern province of Jiangsu in the summer with his father, who was delivering bottles of gas, the Nanjing Morning Post reported.

A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the henhouse window, screaming for a long time, after being scared by the dog.

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“One neighbor told police that he had heard the boy’s crying that afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the henhouse window,” the newspaper said.

A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal sound” and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.

The boy’s father was ordered to pay $230 in compensation to the owner of the chickens.

Copyright 2009 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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