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.

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Student Charlotte Emmott questioned the need kill the chicken to make a statement while Casey Switzer was put off his lunch.

"I don't think it is very good to just do that and subject people to seeing that without you know, giving them any warning," Switzer told CBC News. "Plus, in a cafeteria where we're eating food — that's not OK.”

The student, identified only as Miguel, told CTV News he wanted students to understand the connection between animals and the food they eat.

"I just want to put it out there that that is the process it takes for that chicken to get to your table," he said.

I got much the same message when my would-be poultry pet disappeared into the garage.

Student Joanne Townsend said the performance piece was part of a project called Fact or Fiction, CBC News said.

"It was quite beautiful, and not in the gross, gruesome way, but in the way that you know you respect what's happening and this is life and things go on," said Townsend.

Nevertheless, the fallout from Miguel's bloody show may not be over. The college posted an offer on its Facebook page to provide counselling to any students experiencing "grief and shock" from witnessing the chicken's slaughter, and it's also investigating the incident itself.

It'll also be interesting to see if Miguel hears from the SPCA.

[ Related: Damien Hirst's 'dead butterflies' stirs anger ]

The use of animals in art has a controversial history.

British bad-boy artist Damien Hirst was hammered last year for killing 9,000 butterflies for an installation at London's Tate Modern, according to the Huffington Post. He was criticized previously for displaying a shark soaked in formaldehyde and a severed cow's head.

Dutch artist Katrinka Simonse, who goes by he name Tinkerbell, has been condemned for abusing and killing animals for her performance artworks.

According to Toonari Post, Simonse has mutilated and dismembered dogs, put day-old baby chicks in a shredder and killed chicks so she could hang them on hooks. She's gotten so much negative reaction she published a book of her hate mail.

Even the threat of murdering an animal for art's sake is enough to cause a flap.

In 1990, I covered a planned performance by Vancouver artist Rick Gibson to squash a rat named Sniffy with a concrete block in front of the Vancouver Public Library.

A crowd appeared at the location, chased Gibson and roughed him up before learning he'd taken Sniffy back to the pet store where he'd bought it. It was never clear if Gibson intended to go through with it, though the Vancouver Sun noted someone stole the concrete block.