Missing chicken meets a violent end

When two of Lauren Steltzer's pet chickens went missing last week, she put out a Facebook message to her Lower Merion neighbours. The subject line: "Chickens on the lam."

But at least one Lower Merion Township police officer didn't see the message or the "Lost Chickens" posters Steltzer put up throughout the neighbourhood. When the cop responded to a call for a "large, orange chicken running at large" in a residential lawn, he got his fireman friend to skewer Connie the chicken with a bow and arrow, police said.



"The department's opinion is that the officer could have used much better judgment in the resolution of this issue," said Lower Merion Lt. Christopher Polo.

It wasn't until the next day, when a neighbour with knowledge of the incident saw Steltzer's Facebook posting and told her of the foul fate of her dear fowl. "I was very surprised and disappointed because I'd been looking for the darn thing for 24 hours," said Steltzer. "Here, an hour after it disappeared, they shot it - with a bow and arrow!"