Fowl affair: Man loses suit over shot dog
In Mississippi, if your neighbor’s dog is eating your livestock, you can kill it.
Oxford resident Willie Gipson was awarded $42 by Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey after a dog belonging to Gipson’s neighbor ate Gipson’s chickens.
Gipson represented himself in the case brought by Douglas Kyser after Gipson killed Kyser’s dog.
Gipson was being sued for $5,771, but he countersued claiming he shot the professionally trained Labrador retriever after it attacked his golden sebright chickens.
Monday evening Gipson hadn’t heard that Lackey ruled in his favor but said he wasn’t surprised.
“I felt like I was in the right, so I didn’t need to hire a lawyer,” Gipson said.
During a bench trial two weeks ago, Gipson brought two of his chickens to the courtroom to show Lackey they were more valuable than “run of the barnyard chickens.”
“I’ve been on the bench since 1993 and I have never had anything like this,” Lackey said.
Clarion-Ledger
5/19/9
