Chicken dies, wife shoots husband

Chesire: A woman shot her husband in the back after he killed her pet chicken, the Lane County sheriff's deputies said.

Deputies said they were sure that Mary Gray, 58, intended to shoot her husband, Stephen Gray, 43.

But they weren't certain if the husband meant to fire at the chicken.

"We don't know if it was an accident or if it was on purpose," Sergant Clint Riley said. "It depends who you ask," he added.

Riley said the couple had been drinking for much of Monday while they did yard work at their rented home in the town northwest of Eugene, and they began arguing after Stephen Gray shot the chicken with a .44-caliber handgun.

Deputies said he was then hit with a shot from a .22-caliber rifle, and is recovering. Mary Gray was arraigned on Tuesday on an assault charge.