Southwick chicken

The section of fence where Southwick resident Keith Hebig fired a shotgun at a chicken that had entered his yard.

(Dan Glaun)

A roaming chicken, a shotgun blast and Massachusetts firearms laws have led to legal trouble for a Southwick man who, as he tells it, was simply trying to protect his garden.

Keith Hebig, 56, is facing firearms charges after he took a potshot at a neighbor's chicken that had made a habit of digging under his fence and entering his yard.

On Oct. 10, his neighbor told police that Hebig had "shot at the bird with a very loud and powerful firearm" after it left its enclosure and wandered to Hebig's yard. The bird escaped injury, the neighbor told police, according to Southwick Police Officer Thomas Krutka's statement of fact.

Krutka and another officer walked over to Hebig's home and spoke to him as he and his wife were sitting down for dinner, according to the report. Hebig admitted shooting at the chicken, but first claimed he used a BB gun, Krutka wrote.

"I asked him why he would do that and he stated that he is sick and tired of those birds coming into his yard and getting into his garden," the report said.

In an interview, Hebig said that the problem was not just one chicken, but a flock of 30 to 40 birds who would regularly leave their enclosure, deposit manure in his yard and dig up the plots where he and his wife planted corn, lettuce, tomatoes and broccoli. The intrusions had slowed down before this summer, he said, but when he and his wife went on vacation for two months the birds returned.

"There was so much chicken manure in the pool it turned green," he said.

Hebig and his wife returned from vacation on Sept. 28, and on Oct. 10 the dispute boiled over. Hebig said he fired a warning shot at the birds, but his neighbor saw things differently -- she told police she was afraid for her life when she saw him raise the shotgun, according to a victim statement reviewed by MassLive.

"I'll show you fricking free range -- I came in, I got my shotgun and I went down to where they were coming through the fence," Hebig said. "I shot one shot."

Hebig's neighbor declined to comment for this story.

The officers walked with Hebig to the spot in his yard from where he said he shot at the chicken, according to Krutka's police report. Hebig pointed out a section of the fence that was bent up, with dirt dug out underneath it, telling the officers it was the rogue chickens' normal escape route.

When Krutka noted a blast mark about a foot removed from the dig spot, he told Hebig that it appeared to be from a shotgun loaded with bird shot -- not a BB gun as originally claimed. Hebig then admitted to using a shotgun, according to Krutka's report.

Krutka advised Hebig to call the police next time the neighbor's livestock crosses his property line, and told the neighbor to repair the fence, according to his report. Hebig was charged with possession of a gun without a valid Firearms Identification Card and of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.

Hebig still has two BB guns hung up over the mantle in his dining room, but police confiscated his firearms after they discovered his FID card was expired. Since the Oct. 10 incident, he has called police rather than engage with his neighbor, who has a no-contact order against him, he said.