WATCH: As Jenny Sung reports, a Danish radio host is being accused of animal cruelty after he allegedly killed a nine-week old rabbit, called Allan, live on air.
WARNING: This post contains graphic content some readers may find disturbing. Discretion is advised.
Saying they wanted to expose the hypocrisy of animal rights advocates, a radio host in Denmark purportedly beat a rabbit to death with a bicycle pump live on a radio show.
Radio24syv is defending hosts Asger Juhl and Kristoffer Eriksen amid harsh international criticism and calls for boycotts after Jhul allegedly killed the nine-week old rabbit, called Allan, on Monday and later claimed to cook it in a stew.
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The whole point of the alleged killing the rabbit was to “provoke the public and stir a debate about the hypocrisy when it comes to perception of cruelty towards animals,” the radio station said on its Facebook page Tuesday.
“Consumers generally do not kill animals themselves, but we buy and eat animals, that have led sad lives. We just don’t see it, and don’t consider the animals ‘cute’ as the rabbit.”
A video posted on the Radio24syv page shows Jhul holding and petting Allan before the broadcast.
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According to The Local, an animal rights activist joined Jhul for a debate and wound up chasing after the host in hopes of saving the creature.
“I could see that the message is actually for the best of animals but I think it is wrong,” Linse Kessler, also a reality TV star, said in a video message that was translated to English by The Local.
“They wanted to see if they could kill him during the last show or if they had gotten too attached to him,” she added.
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Radio24syv noted Denmark is “one of the top countries in the world” for meat consumption and “consumers do not hesitate to buy cheap meat in stores without asking questions about the life or death of the animal.”
The post went on to say the conditions in which Jhul killed Allan were controlled, just as the pigs, chickens and cows that are slaughtered to be sold in grocery stores.
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“But if you see/hear the killing of an animal, things apparently change. And even more so, if the animal is considered cute. Even though it had a decent life and was killed humanely,” the station said.
“We at least believe that the studio rabbit have had a comfortable existence. We anticipated strong reactions. To take the life of an animal brings about strong emotional response in vast segments of the public. It was important to us that the rabbit would not suffer unnecessarily, and was put down accordingly to careful instructions by a professional animal caretaker from a Danish Zoo.”
Radio24syv also suggested Allan likely would have wound up being eaten by a snake had if the hosts hadn’t eaten him first.
Commenters on the Radio24syv Facebook page, however, described the killing as a sick publicity stunt and animal cruelty.
But there was also support for what the hosts did, even from some unlikely sources.
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