Animal cruelty investigation: Chicken killed after being set on fire
By Rachael Perry
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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida (WPBF) — Detectives are searching for whoever is responsible for setting a chicken on fire on the side of a road, where it later died.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said they’re actively trying to find the person or people seen getting out of a vehicle and setting the chicken on fire. PBSO said the chicken was found dead a short distance from where it was set on fire.
According to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, the incident happened on Friday near the intersection of Avocado Boulevard and 60th Street near the acreage in Palm Beach County.
WPBF 25 News sat down with Capt. David Walesky, with Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, who explained the need to find the suspect(s).
“A lot of times, this is outside of my expertise, but you always notice this with serial killers, that they start off torturing and doing harmful things to animals and children before they advance to where they do something, you know, on that higher level, I guess you would say,” Walesky said.
He said it’s clear the person who did this is unwell.
“This is not a normal thing to do to a live animal, so we need to find that person, and we need to get justice for that animal. But we also need to figure out what’s going on there to begin with, to prevent something more horrific from happening,” he said.
Walesky said they are conducting a necropsy on the chicken to verify the cause of death.
“A necropsy is basically the same thing as an autopsy with humans. So it’s performed by a licensed veterinarian. They go through, they collect tissue samples, skin samples, anything like that that would be helpful for forensics, for testing. They determine the cause of death,” Walesky said.
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From there, he said that it can be used in court to help support anything observed by a witness. “So it kind of corroborates what we already know and brings science into that to better improve the chances of a conviction,” he told WPBF.
As of Jan. 1, 2026, a new law is set to go into effect aimed at people committing these types of crimes. It’s called Dexter’s Law and, among other things, is designed to implement harsher penalties in aggravated animal cruelty cases.
“You have to be afraid of the penalty in order to take that risk a lot of times. Hopefully, it’ll bring more awareness to animal cruelty crimes and the consequences of that when we see people getting a more meaningful sentence when they abuse an animal,” Walesky said.
When it comes to the chicken in this most recent animal cruelty investigation, Walesky shut down any speculation of this being a “ritualistic act.”
“This one right here doesn’t make any sense from a religious standpoint. It is not normal to light a live animal on fire as a part of any religious ritual out there, and that appears to be what has happened, and that is an act of animal cruelty at its just unexplainable form. Whoever did this needs to be prosecuted. There’s not a religion in the world that thinks it’s okay to light live animals on fire,” he said.
Walesky said, unfortunately, they’ve seen an uptick in animal cruelty cases involving livestock. However, he said he can’t imagine what the motive would be to do something like this.
“There are quite a few aspects of this that don’t make any sense. A lot of times, when people are doing things kind of evil like this, they’re doing it more in private. But this is just an intersection and just getting out on a vehicle at a random location and then, you know, lighting a chicken on fire. We don’t understand why, but it’s definitely not something that should be happening in our society,” he told WPBF.
Officials are now pleading with the public for help identifying the suspect(s).
“Anybody who may know who this individual is, recognizes this vehicle, or somebody who was unusually in possession of a chicken on that day. Anything may help. This is definitely a situation that we just don’t understand, but it’s definitely animal cruelty, and we would definitely like to see somebody prosecuted for this,” Walesky said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. C. Kovacs, from the Animal Crimes Unit, at KovacsC@pbso.org or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477). Tips can remain anonymous.
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