Ben Hamilton
October 9th, 2017

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It should be pointed out that he does apologise whilst he’s doing it. Not sure whether it’s the chicken or the children though (photo: screenshot)

Most chicken suppers in Denmark start with the rallying call of ‘Aftensmad’, and that’s it as far as hors d’oeuvres tend to go in this country.

But a teacher at Langsøskolen in Silkeborg had a different kind of appetiser in mind when he chopped the heads off a couple of live chickens in front of a crowd of school-children aged between six and nine.

This was the finale of ‘Fra start til slut’ (from start to finish), a project aimed at educating children about the processes involved that lead to food reaching our tables.

Get me a KFC bucket … of blood
A post on the Ekstra Bladet website, including a video of the incident, ended up being the third most popular in Denmark in September, which isn’t surprising given the similarities with the death and dissection of Marius the giraffe at Copenhagen Zoo in 2014.

Like Marius, the cocks were singled out for death due to breeding issues, and children were witness to the bloody mess that ensued – in the school’s case, a headless carcass spurting blood into a bucket.

And just like Marius, the end result was eaten – not by lions this time, although the school did not disclose how many children turned away their plates.

Everyone’s got an opinion on this one
Commenters on the school’s Facebook page were quick to condemn the slaughter as “perverted”, “evil”, “macabre”, “slaughter as entertainment”, “disrespectful”, “unnecessary”, “amateurish” and “traumatising”.

In turn, many were supportive, pointing out that attendance was optional and that parents were consulted and invited to attend.

Since the posting of the video on the Ekstra Bladet website, the debate has become a national one.

Can’t beat a sore arse
Still, it wasn’t enough to top Storyclash’s Social Media Rankings for September, which counts interactions such as likes, shares or comments across all social media networks.

The most popular post of the month was a spoof video about Danes increasingly going to the doctor with a sore arse, which was produced and shared by the radio station P3.

Trailing a close second was a casting call for ‘nisse’ to appear in a new Christmas advert. According to the BT post, TV3 is looking for adults aged 25-50 who are no taller than 165 cm for two days of paid work from November 1-2 in Greater Copenhagen.

Presumably a lot of sizeist sharing on walls accounted for the popularity of this one.