Jacksonville man arrested after police say he killed neighbor’s pet rooster

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man has been accused of murdering his neighbor’s rooster. Now, a feud between the two has ended in a 30-hour jail stay and a lot of fighting.

James Nix says it happened mid-May of this year.

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“I didn’t know to give it a 21-gun salute!” Nix said, “CPR, mouth-to-mouth, do you know? Or call the chicken ambulance?”

Jason Defelice believes his neighbor killed the pet rooster on purpose, saying, “I lose them to animals, but I was not expecting to lose them to my neighbor that was like my friend.”

Nix says it only happened because the rooster was attacking him.

“I’m defending myself, you know. I was fearing for my safety, and the chicken died.”

He explained his side of the story: “I just checked my mail and turn around and go, and I hear, ’Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!’ And I turn around, and there’s a chicken out there in the street. I said, ’Oh boy, here we go.’”

“Turn around, walk to my place bang bang bang bang bang now the chickens in my yard! Now it’s neck flares up,” he said.

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He says what happened next was an accident.

“So I pick up a stick in the yard, and I try to hit it. But the chickens jumping up at me, and I accidentally knocked in the head, you know? Call it a lucky shot, whatever.”

But when Defelice came home, all he saw was his dead pet rooster.

“I didn’t see my rooster at first, so I knew something was up because he would always come chase me,” Defelice said. ”Then, I went in his yard and yelled at him, and he finally came out and said he killed him.”

Kids in the neighborhood told him Nix, who lives right across the street, had beaten the rooster. Nix says he confronted him, rooster in hand.

“He’s yelling and screaming in my yard and I just told him to leave.”

That’s when Defelice took action.

“I said, ‘I’m calling JSO.’ I called JSO, but JSO didn’t do nothing. And a couple days later, I realized iI could call animal control.”

After animal control investigated, Nix was arrested for animal cruelty.

“Next thing you know, he calls the chicken police on me,” Nix said.

Nix says he still doesn’t understand why his neighbor would have called the police on him.

“Chickens die every day, people — at Churches, Popeyes, Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

See the full interview below:

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