Kyle Schmidt
•7/18/2026
A Naples teenager is devastated after two dogs broke into her backyard chicken coop, killing 19 of her chickens that she considered pets and family.
"I’ve always just liked small birds, I always thought birds were cute," Rylee OConnell said.
The OConnell family’s chicken coop, which produced about 20 eggs a day, was managed by Rylee, who her family affectionately calls the "chicken tender."
"I’m the chicken tender because I don’t like the idea of eating them, but I tend to them," Rylee said.
Her mother, Julienne OConnell, explained how much the chickens meant to her daughter. "They are her pets, they are her compatibility, they’re kind of her escape from school. She goes out, she lets them out, she spends time with them," she said.
As Rylee prepares to enter high school, she had started selling eggs to save money for her first car, a Jeep like her mom’s. The coop housed 29 birds, all part of her plan to achieve that goal.
But tragedy struck early Friday morning.
"My mom opened the door and told me my chickens, like, sorry, um, dead, and when I came out I just couldn’t really look at it, so I just went back inside," Rylee said, wiping away tears.
According to Julienne OConnell, two dogs broke into the coop by tearing through the chicken wire. "Right below the chicken wire was one of the dogs’ zap collars," she said.
Rylee expressed her grief, saying, "They weren’t just livestock, they were pets, so I would like them to understand they meant more to me than just that."
The OConnell family is now seeking accountability from the dogs’ owners and an apology for Rylee.
"We will rebuild our flock. It will take some time, just as it took two years for them. We will make it more secure," Julienne said.
The family plans to meet with animal control on Saturday to get more answers.
