Cromarty Chicken Torturers

Date Added: 06 May 2008 Contributor: Colin Dunn Year: 2008 Picture No: 2149

Sometime during Sunday night we lost a hen - one of the 6 we had. We assumed that a Pine Marten had got it. Last night, however, someone broke into our chicken coop and stole two more of our hens, and took them to the back of Townlands Park.

Then they tortured them to death.

These hens, though providing the occasional welcome egg or two, were my wife's pets. They were for her as cats and dogs are to normal non-chickeny people, so their deaths at the hands of senseless cruelty is very distressing for her.

If you know anything about this, or have any information which can help in tracking down the sick people who did this, please contact the police immediately.

2 Comments

It took me a long time to gather my thoughts before leaving a comment. Firstly, I am very sad for you both, that something as simple and harmless as chicken-keeping, which does not infringe on anyone else, should attract such malicious attention. The trespass and theft from your garden is upsetting enough; the sheer nastiness of someone frightening and tormenting these birds leaves you wondering what kind of people we live alongside; passing them in the street, exchanging friendly words with them, not knowing who these people are that would do this to living creatures; you have to guess at how bleak their own lives must be, if torturing helpless hens is worth boasting and laughing about to their friends up at the Park.

Pretty horrible for the people who found the dead birds too. It's bad enough when a fox or pine marten kills your pets; but that is nature, red in tooth and claw; we tend to expect better of our fellow humans.

Cromarty's young people have been bringing me sick and injured birds and animals for the last fifteen years; some of the people you would least expect have turned up on my doorstep with a box or a bucket or a bird wrapped in a school jumper, because despite outward appearances they actually have a kindness in them when it comes to the weak and defenceless. I mention this in the hope that these many small acts of kindness somehow counterbalance this cruelty and show that the people who have upset you so very much are the minority.
Comment left on 07 May 2008 at 00:40 by Ann Hill

Thanks Ann. The one good thing to come out of this really unpleasant situation is how shocked everyone in the town is, and how many messages of support we've received.

Barbel and her mother simply can't understand why anyone would do something like this. Casual, spur-of-the-moment cruelty is bad enough, but sneaky, premeditated brutality like this is just incomprehensible, and just leaves you shaking your head. Comment left on 08 May 2008 at 09:17 by Colin

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