Boy`s screaming kills chickens, for crying out loud

[Carol]

BEIJING, 01/24 - Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in east China -- and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported on Wednesday.

The bizarre sequence 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 cared by the dog.

"One neighbour 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 1,800 yuan ($230) in compensation to the owner of the chickens.

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