FILLMORE : No Charges Due in Lost-Chickens Case

No charges will be filed against a truck driver who abandoned 4,000 chickens in a ravine after a trailer full of birds broke loose from his rig on Grimes Canyon Road between Moorpark and Fillmore.

Officials of the Humane Society of Ventura County said their investigation did not find that the driver intended to neglect the animals, and the society will not ask the Ventura County district attorney’s office to prosecute.

“Because he was not from the area, supposedly he didn’t know whom to call,” society director Jolene Hoffman said.

A 24-hour effort by the Humane Society and the Ventura County Animal Reg ulation Department rescued 1,500 chickens from the canyon.

Then the birds were sent on to their original destination--a Northern California slaughterhouse.

The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17 after a driver for Coehlo Trucking of Turlock, Calif., left Moorpark’s Egg City Ranch with 8,000 former laying hens packed in two trailers.

When the rear trailer broke loose on a steep grade, the driver continued on to Valley Fresh Farms, a meat processing plant in Turlock.

Officials at Egg City did not learn of the accident until the following afternoon.

Although the egg ranch was not responsible for the chickens once they left its premises, Egg City officials notified the county agency and provided workers to assist in rescue operations.