Word comes from Fiji that social workers are trying to humanize a 32-year-old man who was raised by chickens.
The guy reportedly was locked in a chicken coop when he was a kid and now behaves like a chicken.
He apparently escaped the coop and later was taken to a hospital. Workers there, buffaloed by the man's actions, locked him in a room and tied him to a bed, where he roosted for more than 20 years.
Now social worker Elizabeth Clayton is treating him.
Clayton was quoted as saying the man (we'll call him Funky) "had ... imprinted with the chicken."
"He was perching, he was picking at his food, he was hopping around like a chicken.
"He'd keep his hands in a chickenlike fashion, and he'd make a noise which was like the calling of a chicken - which he still has."
If the treatments don't work, the islanders will have a feast of finger food followed by fried Funky.

Posted at July 12, 2004 12:17 PM