Asking the correct chicken question

Seems that all these years, the question, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" really should have been, "Why should the chicken not cross the road?" - or - "What are the legal and financial consequences poultry-wise for unscheduled road crossings?"

This tale comes by way of Ananova, always a good source for deep thoughts.

Since it is a short story, here it is in its entirety:


Chicken fined for crossing road

A chicken fined for crossing the road has walked free from court in the US after a judge threw out the charge.
Ophelia, a black Polish hen, earned her owners a £30 fine for illegally walking across the street in California.
California state law bans livestock from highways but not domestic pets.

But lawyers for Ophelia's owners Linc and Helena Moore successfully argued that Ophelia was domesticated and could not be charged as livestock - and the case was dismissed.

The Moores had been fined after their chicken wandered onto a road in the small rural mining town of Johannesburg in Kern county.