No charges against Calgary art student who beheaded chicken in college cafeteria

I grew up in southeast Calgary a few blocks from the stockyards, the Burns meatpacking plant and the Pinecrest "chicken factory," as my friends and I called it.

One day, a chicken turned up in our backyard, an escapee from the crates of birds that arrived daily at Pinecrest's loading dock. We corralled it and in my 10-year-old mind I figured we'd keep it as a pet.

A few hours later, though, a family friend took the chicken into the garage, where the it met its ultimate destiny. The message I got was clear: Chickens aren't pets, they're dinner.

I thought of that when I read about the uproar after a student at Calgary's Alberta College of Art and Design beheaded a chicken in the school's cafeteria as an artistic statement.

According to The Canadian Press, Calgary police said the chicken was killed as part of a project and was sanctioned by the student's instructor.

Police were called at lunchtime Thursday by a student reporting someone killing a chicken with a knife. Officers interviewed the man but did not arrest him.

After consulting with Crown prosecutors, police said Friday no charges would be laid.

“Upon arrival the officers were able to determine the act was part of an assignment to perform and film a public protest," acting inspector Rick Tuza told CTV News. "We have identified the student involved. We have spoken to him. He wasn’t arrested. He wasn’t charged."

The "performance," surprised and shocked other students in the cafeteria.

“He just decided to slowly slit its throat while it's wiggling, wriggling and screaming and then drained it out, popped its head off, strung it up, washed it, plucked it,” Breydon Stangland, a student who witnessed the event told CBC News.