The man in his 40s had 15 chickens and a rooster in his possession.
It was an acquaintance of the man who sounded the alarm in November last year when he borrowed the man's workshop and discovered the chickens.
- Then I saw a hen walking around.
I also saw a chicken coop that I looked into and I thought it looked strange.
It looked like a pile of feathers but then I saw that it was dead hens.
It was not cleaned inside, it stank.
There was no water and there was overturned stuff everywhere.
I was shocked, says the man who sounded the alarm to the county administrative board.
The man reported the incident to the county administrative board, which visited the address the next day.
Then they found ten dead chickens, of which eight had died of what is believed to be starvation.
According to the county administrative board, the man had slaughtered two of the chickens himself after he became aware of the report.
Thought he did what he was supposed to
The space where the chickens were stored was according to the animal welfare officer who made the inspection very dirty and lacked ventilation.
Harmful levels of ammonia were measured.
The hens and rooster that were still alive were malnourished with visible sternum.
They were taken into custody and killed the same day.
The accused man denies that he intentionally caused suffering and says in interrogation that he thought he had done what he was supposed to do.