Man kills 70,000 chickens while drunk

GlobalPost

Joshua D. Shelton must be experiencing the hangover of a lifetime. 

According to sheriffs officials, the 21-year-old man of Delmar, Md., was wandering around a poultry farm after one cocktail too many when he turned off the power to three chicken houses, causing the deaths of nearly 70,000 chickens. 

Lt. Tim Robinson of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office told DelmarvaNow.com, “This is a first for me in my almost 20-year career." 

According to the Washington Post, Shelton was wandering around the farm when he entered a shed and flipped a switch, possibly thinking it was a light switch. But Shelton and the chickens were not so lucky. Shelton instead hit the power switch which "most likely killed $20,000 worth of chickens within 15 minutes," according to police.

“Shelton advised the last thing he remembered was being on the property after a nearby concert but did not know how he ended up in the shed. The deputy surmised that in his intoxicated state, Shelton turned off the circuit breakers that controlled the electricity to the chicken houses,” Robinson told NBC. 

To make matters worse, the owner of the farm found Shelton passed out in the shed in a puddle of his own urine, with nothing on but a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, according to the Associated Press. 

Shelton was arrested and booked into jail on charges of second-degree burglary, trespass and malicious destruction of property. He is being held on $75,000 bond. 

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