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Danish radio presenter defends slaying rabbit live on-air

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By John Glenday, Reporter

May 27, 2015 | 2 min read

A Danish radio presenter who achieved worldwide infamy after slaying a baby rabbit with a bicycle pump live on-air has attempted to justify his actions by saying it was an attempt to draw attention to the hypocrisy of animal rights campaigners who eat supermarket meat.

Asger Juhl, presenter of Radio24syv, was hosting a discussion on animal welfare when he rose from his chair and hit the nine-week old rabbit three times with a bicycle pump before wringing its neck and then making stew from the body.

The incident immediately drew outrage from listeners with some urging people to boycott the station in future.

Defending the stunt however Juhl told Sky News: “We wanted to raise a discussion about why animal welfare is an issue for some animals but not for other animals.

"In Denmark, at least, we have a very industrialised agricultural industry and a lot of these animals in this sector are not basically viewed as animals, they're machines delivering meat to our tables and we don't really care about their animal welfare.

"We have some animals that we have decided that we care about their animal welfare and that discrepancy we wanted to address. The rabbit is something you can eat, but also an animal we care a lot about. Why don't we care for a piglet, why don't we care for a small cow, or lamb?”

Commenting on the methodology behind the killing Juhl said he took advice from experts beforehand to minimise the animal’s suffering.

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