The chicken that lived for 18 months without a head

This would definitely be classed as animal abuse today.<p>To quote the article:<p>&gt; Reports indicate that Mike&#x27;s beak, face, eyes and an ear were removed with the hatchet blow. But Smulders estimates that up to 80% of his brain by mass - and almost everything that controls the chicken&#x27;s body, including heart rate, breathing, hunger and digestion - remained untouched.<p>So in effect the chicken was still alive and potentially suffering the whole 18 months. Lovely.

I know in general there&#x27;s no room for pity when it comes to animals for food. But just felt sad reading this, especially the attempts to replicate Mike&#x27;s case. It frustrates me that while we make a strong legal case against cruelty towards animals, we don&#x27;t give a thought about those animals that are turned to food for humans. Of course, you could argue why harm vegetables&#x2F;plants for food, but I guess animals suffer much more because of higher consciousness.

I read about this years ago on <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.damninteresting.com&#x2F;superflous-brain&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.damninteresting.com&#x2F;superflous-brain&#x2F;</a> which is one of the most accurate domain names on the Internet.<p>I wonder what&#x27;d happen with a similar experiment on Hans the Counting Horse?

I skimmed around Google...what&#x27;s the next longest record for a chicken? The OP mentions rumors of scientists trying to repeat the phenomenon though none apparently successful...unless Mike had a extraordinarily unique anatomy...wouldn&#x27;t this kind of thing been seen before, among all the billions of chickens killed since then? (Obviously, many billions more are killed every year, but probably not with an ax). Doing it as a science experiment seems cruel...but not nearly as seemingly cruel as many other kinds of animal experiments.

If it is possible to be alive without a brain, then if you think about it that explains Donald Trump.

I skimmed through the article, but I couldn&#x27;t find anything about how the chicken was fed.