Cock fight: 'Right to farm' defense fails in Boone County trial

[pstokely]

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/cock-fight-right-to-farm-defense-fails-in-boone-county/article_9b75d446-1cda-536a-96c0-05d4e3203f0d.html#comment_tab

"Trousers the rooster was an accident, a cockerel among pullets in the group of four chicks purchased in the spring of 2013 by Jeremy Rogers to begin his backyard flock.

As he matured, Trousers began to crow each morning at first light, a common sound in the country but unusual in the subdivision where Rogers lives off Smiley Lane with his wife and three children.

“He would crow throughout the day, to let the ladies know he is there and can do roosterly things,” Rogers said.

Trousers is gone. Sent to live with a relative near St. James after Rogers was cited for disturbing the peace in June 2014, Trousers fell victim to a fox or other predator. Rogers, convicted Friday in a bench trial before Associate Circuit Judge Kim Shaw, must decide whether to keep Trousers’ spirit alive with an appeal challenging the prosecution as a violation of his right to farm under the Missouri Constitution.

Columbia’s backyard chicken ordinance allows six hens and bans roosters. The city limits, however, stop at the property line of Rogers’ backyard. Rogers currently has 13 hens, laying 10 to 12 eggs a day that he sells to friends and neighbors. He never intended to have a rooster, but Trousers’ sex was misidentified at the hatchery."

[xfundy]

1. They send male chicks into a screw drive thing

that tears them apart and shreds them. Then they are fed to other chickens.