Man pleads guilty to feeding his beloved chicken named Betty White to alligators

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NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia (WJW) – A beloved chicken recently died after being thrown into a pond full of alligators at an Australian animal park.

Visitors to Oakvale Farm and Fauna World in Salt Ash, New South Wales, were treated to an unpleasant sight in January after a man snatched a Chinese bantam named Betty White from her habitat and brought her into the alligator enclosure for impromptu feeding.

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According to the Australian Associated Press, suspect Peter Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals earlier this week.

“This is the first time in our 43 years that we have had a member of the public [allegedly] “To commit such cruelty in an animal sanctuary,” Kent Sansom, who owns the park, said in a statement to AAP.

“Betty White was hand-raised in the park and played a crucial role in our endangered species breeding program for the curlew and other species by providing surrogacy to the chicks,” he said. “Her calm demeanor means she wouldn’t hesitate to ask a customer for some animal pellets, making her an easy target for them [an alleged] ruthless perpetrator.”

The maximum penalty for the charge is two years in prison and a fine of just over $24,000. Smith is scheduled to be sentenced on November 20, according to AAP.

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