Photo Credit: Mike Hamby via Facebook

Talk about free range.

Was this chicken looking for one of its deceased ancestors? Whatever the reason, it was roaming around the Alps Kroger parking lot a few days ago—and it was up to three Athens-Clarke County commissioners to track it down.

They failed.

From Mike Hamby's Facebook page:

I get a call from former Commissioner Kathy Hoard asking to help her catch this chicken running loose in the Kroger parking lot. We called Commissioner Kelly Girtz thinking he was a chicken expert, or the owner, but we were wrong on both accounts. We did find out that chickens are very fast and also learned exactly why it is that chickens cross the road:

To get away from a County Commissioner, a former County Commissioner, an animal control officer, Greg Yoder, and half dozen Kroger employees. The chicken eluded capture and is hiding out somewhere over in the vicinity of Alps Elementary.

Clearly, this is the scenario Mayor Nancy Denson envisioned when she warned us about the slippery slope of backyard chickens. Soon, grocery stores will be raising them in the parking lot, and the local Pilgrim's Pride plant will go out of business. That's not how you create jobs.