It's not an error easily fathomed. Penis, chicken neck. One unfamiliar with chicken necks - or penises - might not be able to distinguish one from the other in the dark of night, but that argument weakens when it's one's own penis. Surely a man knows his own attached penis from the neck of a living chicken? Constantin Mocanu didn't. Not until the axe fell.

The 67-year-old Galati, Romania, resident was roused from his sleep by a noisy chicken. Having been kept awake by the chicken in the past, Mocanu felt the time to deal with the situation was nigh. He rushed out into the yard intending to shut that chicken up once and for all. Somehow Mocanu slipped up and cut off his own penis.

"I confused it with the chicken's neck," Mocanu later told doctors. After he dropped his severed penis in shock, Mocanu's dog scampered over and ate it. Mocanu was rushed to hospital bleeding heavily. His wounds are non-life-threatening.

» Scott Saxon