It’s understandable if Joy McDonald is dogged by fear these days: She faces possible jail time for the death of a chicken.

But McDonald didn’t kill the chicken. Supposedly, her two chihuahuas, Peaches and Domino, caused the hen to have a heart attack.

Until her untimely death on April 5, the hen belonged to McDonald’s neighbors, George and Nittaya Gamblin, who keep chickens as pets at their Missouri home east of Kansas City.

McDonald’s dogs are usually indoors, but George Gamblin said they got loose and were found inside his chicken coop.

“We’ve run them out of here before,” Gamblin told WDAF-TV, adding that his wife injured her knee chasing away the dogs that night.

McDonald, who is studying to become a veterinarian, believes the penned bird suffered a heart attack when the Chihuahuas barked at it while running loose in the rural neighborhood.

Now she’s charged with misdemeanor animal abuse. The court records say the dogs killed the chicken but don’t explain how. However, the evidence submitted for the case is brutal according to officials.

Read more at The Huffington Post