Dude Rocks the Fox

Don't mess with this Dude.

Being chickens, they probably didn't put too much thought into it.

But somehow a flock of four birds managed to kill a fox that had slunk into their pen hoping to gobble them up.

Their owner Michelle Cordell, 43, had the shock of her life when she went to collect the eggs on the weekend and instead found a heavily pecked pile of fur lying dead in the corner.

She said: 'I was shocked. When I opened up the door, the chickens came running out, happy as anything.

'I went inside and the fox was laying there. I've never heard of anything like this before. It's like revenge of the chickens.'

The family, of Basildon, Essex, have in the past lost a hen and a cockerel to foxes, so are well aware of the danger the animals pose.

And so, it seems, are their chickens.

This time, the marauder was a relatively young fox - and no match for the new cockerel Dude and his hens Izzy, Pongo and Pecky.

Miss Cordell has no doubt it is Dude who was the ringleader in the murder.

She said she had shut the sliding door of the coop when she put the chickens to bed on Friday night, but the fox must have nosed his way under. When she went out on Saturday morning, the door was still shut.

The little table in the corner of the coop, which the chickens perch on, had been kicked over and was lying next to the fox's head.

There's a photo of the pecked fox at the link if you'd like to see it. Surely some animal rights wackos will have a problem with Dude.