Man dies after being attacked by ‘aggressive’ chicken

An Irish man died of a heart condition after he was mauled by a chicken on his property.

Jasper Kraus of Killahornia was attacked by a chicken on 28 April last year, reported The Irish Examiner, citing a recent inquest.

Authorities said the man was found lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood and had a wound inflicted on the back of one of his legs.

Garda Eoin Browne of the Clonark neighbourhood told the inquest that he was called out to the scene of the sudden death, where he met paramedics.

He was informed by them that they had carried out CPR, but without success. Brahma is an American breed of chicken. Dr Ramadan Shatwan told the inquest that while the deceased’s face was covered in dry blood, there were no cuts to his face and his cause of death was due to lethal cardiac arrhythmia.

Kraus’s body was taken to the mortuary of Roscommon Hospital and later for a post mortem to the University College Hospital.

Kraus’ daughter Virginia Guinan said to the inquest that she had dropped shopping off at her father’s house around noon on the day of his death. According to Ms Guinan, the family “knew his heart was bad”.

She said when she went inside, he was asleep and did not want to wake him. Kraus’s dog had died recently and he was upset.

She said her father was in remission from cancer and previously had renal failure as well. He was also on a lot of medication at the time.

She was later contacted by her father’s tenant Corey O’Keeffe, who informed her about the incident.

When she reached the house, she saw blood all over the floor and paramedics performing CPR on her father.

She said she “realised that it must have been the chicken” that caused her father’s death.

Mr O’Keeffe said the Brahma chicken that attacked Kraus “came here because it was aggressive before”.

Ms Guinan also said she saw a chicken with blood on its claws and suspected it was the same animal that attacked her father. She pointed out that the animal had previously attacked her daughter as well.

Mr O’Keeffe said he heard Kraus screaming during the attack and saw blood spurting from the man’s leg, as well as a large wound on his calf.