What would you do to protect your Birds?

[BelovedBirds]

Man tells Orlando police he fatally shot someone outside home for trying to steal his birds​

The man investigators said shot and killed someone outside of his Orange County home said the victim was trying to steal his birds.
It happened off Ponderosa Drive near Orlando International Airport.

Deputies first arrived on the scene early Thursday morning around 4 a.m. when they put crime scene tape around the home after finding a man lying on the ground by a chicken group.

By the time they arrived, investigators said Enrique Benavides Montero was already lying dead on the ground.

The homeowner told investigators he left the gun inside the home, unloaded. The homeowner was taken in for questioning, but so far has not been arrested or charged.

The Sheriff’s Office said it will be sending the case to the State Attorney’s office.
The investigation is still ongoing.

I mean, this reminds me of a nightmare I had. I once had a nightmare that a crazy lady was trying to kill my duck, in a real bad way, and nothing I did would make her stop, so in the dream I killed her, but, um, nightmares are kinda irrational and weird. I had another dream that I beat the devil up for getting too close to my ducks
I promise in real life I am sane and peaceful.

That aside, I would definitely fight to protect my girls though, I would for all my animals, even if that meant hurting a person, if nothing else would make them stop. I'm extremely protective and love my animals as family. Maybe that seems insane to some, but I think its fair if someone is actively trying to hurt your loved ones, animal or human.

Just.... shooting someone for trying to steal your poultry, thats.... a lot, gosh

 

[Meri Maura]

Mess with my chickens = instant death

 

[Meri Maura]

Mess with my chickens = instant death

Stay the f away from my chickens and we can be friends

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Charges are likely to come. I do not believe Fla law allows for the use of deadly force for theft outside of the home but for the purposes of search and seizure, the coop would be considered the home. However, the homeowner could have confronted the thief and felt threatened and it becomes self defense. An interesting legal case, for sure.

Correct, Florida doesn’t allow for use of deadly force to protect property alone. Florida does allow deadly force to be presumptively used in any home or vehicular invasion.

For instance, if I’m sitting in my car in my driveway and someone invades my car while I’m in it, I may kill the person with generally no questions asked. The law presumes the person invaded my car as I sat there to do me harm. If I am in my home and look out the window to see someone having broke into my car and sitting in it, but the car is unoccupied, I may not shoot the person just because they’re in my unoccupied car, even if they’re obviously stealing my stuff.

Now if the person sitting in my car finds my pistol in the glove box, that may be different. At the point I see them with the gun I might have some justification in shooting. Up until the point the person was rummaging through the car, the crime was burglary of a conveyance, a third degree felony, and possibly theft. When they picked up the gun, the crime became burglary of a conveyance while armed, a life felony and a forcible felony under Florida law. Deadly force may be used to stop forcible felonies. Although the definition of forcible felony generically includes burglaries, case law usually excludes third degree felony burglaries from that definition. So whether deadly force is permitted in that circumstance depends on whether the perp raises the level of offense by his conduct.

I don’t think seeing someone stealing chickens in the coop would allow legal justification for killing them. But non-deadly force may be used to stop the theft and then those circumstances could morph into legal use of deadly force.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Now on a purely moral level, would I kill a human to protect my chickens? I intellectually agree that a human life is worth infinitely more than a chicken’s life. Yet, I value my chickens greatly…

A bigger issue for me is that my farm is very isolated and my homestead is in the middle of my property behind a locked gate. If someone was to come in on me, I’m more likely to be concerned that they’re here to hurt my family and will likely view it through that lens.

If an unarmed person was trying to steal my chickens and I didn’t deem them to be a likely threat to my family, I’d probably just citizen arrest them until LEOs got here. If they then became violent in resisting my arrest, yes I’d kill them. If they ran, I’d probably put my dogs on them. There’s a lot of woods they got to go through before they can escape my place.

I have more thought about what would happen if some entity tried to seize my chickens. I would probably fight a revolution to stop my wayward Uncle from taking my flock.

 

[The Moonshiner]

 

[Sussex19]

I would 100% not kill a human, but I would decide in the moment wether I would injure them or not.
Most likely not though.