In a ‘stunt’ to highlight animal cruelty in Denmark, a radio host has beaten a baby rabbit to death live on air.
The broadcaster released a statement following the episode, stating that Asger Juhl had killed the rabbit to highlight the “hypocrisy” in Danes’ attitudes towards animal welfare.
This hypocrisy has to do with the horrific conditions under which animals are killed for human consumption in “one of the world’s most industrialised agriculture sectors”.
“We buy and eat animals that have had an awful life. And animals that have been killed under the same controlled conditions as the rabbit in the studio” stated the broadcaster.
“In Danish pig farms, 25,000 piglets die every day, because agriculture has bred pigs that give birth to more piglets than the sow can feed. This is wasted life” said the station Radio24syv.
The stunt has received a resoundingly negative response from the public, with some labelling it as simply a provocation with the aims of promoting the station itself.
Juhl said he was instructed by a zoo keeper, how to correctly kill the animal, ending the rabbit’s life by hitting it hard on the neck “so that the cervical vertebrae fractured.”
The host and the station have been labelled “sick” and “sadistic” for going ahead with what people are calling “the execution”.
Its begs the question as to whether the stunt was indeed raising awareness of the current state of animal welfare in Denmark, or the host was in fact contributing to the practices he was condemning. Either way, the actions of this host were deplorable and we can think of a million more effective ways of showcasing animal cruelty in the farming industry, over adding to the death count.
What do you think about this ‘stunt’ and the message it was attempting to portray?
