Miami - Riptide 2.0 - Actually, Mr. Clucky Is Just Going on Vacation

Actually, Mr. Clucky Is Just Going on Vacation

By Gus Garcia-Roberts in Flotsam

Thursday, Aug. 13 2009 @ 9:32AM

On Tuesday, pretty much every local outlet -- including this one -- reported that code-violatin' gangsta poultry Mr. Clucky was fleeing the state in order to avoid a $50-a-day fine. But yesterday afternoon, the rooster's owner, Mark Buckley, phoned Riptide to let us know that, in fact, he and his rooster (and his rooster's girlfriend) always head to his home in New Hampshire when it gets too hot down here. In a couple of weeks, Buckley will load the chickens into his 1966 Ford pickup and take backroads to the Northeast.

Naturally, says Buckley, a TV film crew has already promised to be there for that, because what else do reporters have to do?

Buckley clarifies he hasn't paid a dime to Miami Beach for his code violation, and with appeals, "it could be years before they fine me anything." Then he starts talking about potentially taking his protest of the violation to the U.S. Supreme Court and even reaching out to Obama for an "executive exemption." We imagine that if Buckley were granted that, those Free Mumia people might get pretty pissed.

"I just want to dispel this idea that we're getting kicked out of town and we're losing," Buckley says. "We're not losing. We're on our game. They picked the wrong chicken."