Joshua Shelton, 21, cut off power to a battery chicken farm in Maryland, US, depriving the birds of food, water and cooling fans, The Sun quoted police as saying.
He now faces charges of burglary, malicious destruction of property and trespassing for the last Friday night incident.
According to court documents, within just 15 minutes, tens of thousands of chickens across three massive poultry houses began to perish in the sweltering conditions.
Shelton was found passed out wearing only a T-shirt and boxers in the farm's power control shed near the small town of Delmar in California.
Only 100 surviving chickens could be found of the slaughtered $20,000 flock the next morning.
