SoBe to Famous Chicken: Get the Cluck Out

Mr. Clucky, South Beach's unofficial animal ambassador, is getting the boot from the beach

PETA officials need to stop monitoring Mike Vick's home and rush down to South Beach pronto, because there is a travesty in progress.

Mr. Clucky is being kicked out of his home. Now, if you are a SoBe regular, you know the beach wouldn't be the same without the charismatic rooster that sits atop a bike, takes in the cool breeze and attracts all the hot ladies. After all, what says "I'm in the most happening place in the world" like poultry?

Well, Miami Beach officials, in what we figure is an act of jealousy, is giving Mr. Clucky's owner a week to remove the chicken from the beach or else, the Miami New Times reported. We shudder to think what "or else" means, but one can only think of a deep fryer and Col. Sanders.

Mr. Clucky isn't just a chicken. He's a South Beach icon and as ingrained in the culture as sandals and cocktails before noon. Mr. Clucky has been a grand marshal in the King Mango Strut Parade, has headlined Miami-Dade Earth Day events, and even won "best activist" in City Link in 2008. And this is the thanks he gets?

Mark Buckley, who owns Mr. Clucky and rides around the beach with the rooster on his bike, plans to fight City Hall, and we hope PETA joins him. We hope it's a real cock fight.

Buckley got a $75 ticket and was told the city doesn't allow farm animals on the beach. Where was that rule years ago when Mr. Clucky took his first bike ride on Lincoln Road?

And not to nitpick, but we're sure there are plenty of ladies on the beach that would rather see some of the pigs they have to deal with removed before a charming rooster.

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