At-large Chicken Captured

It's true, I make fun of my local paper. Sometimes though, it prints some really great articles, like this one. I'm happy to report that this was not an escaped chicken from our little farm. Last year a speckled Plymouth Rock rooster ran away from our farm, and he did find his way to town! He was quickly caught and returned before causing havoc like this chicken.

If you like this article, be sure and click on the title link and scroll down and read the snarky readers comments!

JACKSONVILLE, IL --After leading police on a foot chase Thursday afternoon, Jacksonville’s marauding black chicken has been taken into custody, and the fugitive fowl would no longer be terrorizing the streets and parks of Jacksonville.

Despite repeated attempts by police, animal control and concerned citizens to subdue the chicken, it eluded capture for five days.

The chicken was spotted early Thursday evening near the High School Apartments in the 500 block of West State Street. A local chicken expert was alerted and, upon arriving at the scene, the chicken expert was able to catch the wily creature in less than five minutes.

The black chicken is now incarcerated at an undisclosed location outside of Jacksonville. It has joined the previously fugitive white chicken, which was apprehended Tuesday in a downtown parking lot by a group of citizens armed only with blankets and a pet carrier.

As reported in Tuesday’s and Friday’s Journal-Courier, the two chickens had menaced Jacksonville’s downtown area since Feb. 14, both startling and amusing residents and business patrons in the process.

The contributor of this story, Beth Racey, works in the personnel department at The Farmers State Bank and Trust Company located in downtown Jacksonville.