UPDATED: Radio24syv wanted to start a debate about the treatment of animals in Denmark's agriculture sector so its hosts killed a baby rabbit with a bicycle pump and ate it. 
 
 In order to demonstrate the “widespread hypocrisy in our relationship to animals”, Danish radio station Radio24syv killed a baby rabbit on air. 
 
 The baby rabbit, Allan, was killed by repeated blows to the head with a bicycle pump and Asger Juhl, one of the radio station's hosts, later skinned it with his children and planned to eat it as rabbit stew with his family and fellow host Kristoffer Eriksen. 
 
 "I hit it hard over the neck twice so that the cervical vertebrae fractured," Juhl told broadcaster TV 2. "I was instructed by a zookeeper from Aalborg Zoo who hits several baby rabbits every week [to feed] the snakes," he added. 
 
 After a strong backlash and calls for a boycott, the radio station defended its rabbit-killing stunt by saying that it achieved its exact purpose, namely exposing the hypocrisy of those who claim to be animal lovers but eat meat. 
 
 “We killed an animal to eat it. Thus what the hosts did [Sunday] morning resembled what most of us do every day when we stand in front of the supermarket's refrigerated counter. We don't kill animals ourselves – but we buy and eat animals that have had a miserable life. And animals that were killed under the exact same controlled settings as the rabbit in the studio. Without it provoking strong reactions and boycotts,” Radio24syv wrote in a long Facebook post 
 
 The station said by killing and eating Allan, they wanted to shine a light on the conditions faced by animals in Denmark's agriculture sector. 
 
 “Danish consumers allow chicken farms to keep 13 chickens per square meter. And they accept lengthy and painful transport of animals to the slaughterhouse. In Danish pig farms, 25.000 piglets die every day, because agriculture has bred pigs that give birth to more piglets than the sow can feed. This is wasted life,” a subsequent English-language version of their Facebook post read. 
 
 The station killed the rabbit over the objections of reality star Linse Kessler , who was brought on the programme as an outspoken advocate for animal rights. Kessler tried to grab the animal and chased radio host Asger Juhl around the studio several times before being asked to leave. 
 
 "They wanted to see if they could kill him during the last show or if they had gotten too attached to him," she said in a video clip on her Facebook page. 
 
 Kessler said she thought she was capable of wresting the animal from Juhl but feared it would die a more painful death if she grabbed it. 
 
 In her video message, she said that she understood the point Radio24syv was trying to make but stressed that Allan should not have been killed on air. 
 
 “I could see that the message is actually for the best of animals but I think it is wrong,” she said. 
 
 R.I.P lille Allan Posted by Linse Kessler on Monday, May 25, 2015 
 
 Story continues below… 
 
 News of the radio stunt quickly made its way to the international media, where several outlets drew parallels with the Copenhagen Zoo's controversial killing of the giraffe Marius last year which led to intense media coverage the world over. ||||| He's the Danish radio host who killed a baby rabbit live on air, in a stunt he said was designed to ignite debate about our meat eating habits. 
 
 Asger Juhl, a presenter on 24/7, hit the nine-week-old bunny, called Alan, repeatedly with an iron bike pump after a segment on the hypocrisy of animal rights campaigners who eat supermarket meat. 
 
 He's been widely criticised for the act. Now, Asger has told Newsbeat his side of the story. 
 
 Warning - this story contains themes some readers may find disturbing. 
 
 The host said: "I did it to show the hypocrisy in the debate. Many people are outraged by what I did, at the same time many of these people will eat meat. And when they eat meat, an animal will die. 
 
 "You cannot say: 'It's terrible to kill an animal' and then eat meat. These things are connected. 
 
 "And then we did it because we wanted to eat it. We ate it yesterday night. We had it for dinner. It was nice." 
 
 "Can I ask you a question? Do you see the problem in killing an animal and then eating it?" Asger Juhl 
 
 He continued: "We are animals and we eat meat. That's the way it is, and we have to be confronted with the fact that animals die when we eat meat. This is just a fact of life." 
 
 One side effect of the stunt has been a slew of threats towards the host and his family, most of which are too graphic to be printed. 
 
 When asked whether he expected the backlash, Asger responded: "No, not in this way. I've had death threats from Russia - people from Russia wanting to kill my children, Danish listeners and people threatening to kill me. I was not prepared for that. 
 
 "I knew, however, that we would spark debate. We were provocative, on purpose. Of course there are some misunderstandings we need to deal with. People are saying we didn't do it in a humane way - we did." 
 
 He added that he was taking the death threats seriously. 
 
 One of the key criticisms of the Asger is that he bludgeoned the rabbit with a bicycle pump. 
 
 He responded: "It was made of iron. 
 
 "What I did, I called up a zoo in Denmark - a guy who kills rabbits, to feed them to the predators in the zoo. He uses an iron stick. I didn't have a stick but I did have a bicycle pump made out of iron. It's the exact same thing. 
 
 "We held it in the back of its body, and I hit it very hard. And I hit it two times more, just to be sure. But it broke the neck of the rabbit the first time. 
 
 "This is the most humane way to kill a rabbit." 
 
 On air, the presenter described the death of the rabbit in detail. 
 
 "We were also talking about how I'm feeling. I wasn't ready for a bad experience, but it was actually a bad experience in some ways. I wasn't breathing normally, I was tense," Asger said. 
 
 "It was not a comfortable minute." 
 
 When we asked if he had been expecting a difficult experience, he said: "Well, I've killed animals before. Chickens, ducks, a lot of fish." 
 
 So why was this different? 
 
 "I don't know. It's been a while since I killed a mammal. It has these nice… It had these big black eyes. It was cute. It had long fur. Maybe that's something." 
 
 Another problem many listeners had with the stunt was the lack of sensitivity they saw in killing a rabbit on air, in a light hearted, almost comic segment. 
 
 Did Asger think that cheapened his message? No: "You know, what happened just before I killed the rabbit is that one of the [guests] tried to take the rabbit from me. 
 
 "This was a woman, very well known in Denmark. She chased me around the table in the studio. 
 
 "I'd never tried anything like it. It was a very comic moment as well as a serious one." 
 
 He went on: "Are you not allowed to laugh when you go to the zoo and watch the lions eat meat? 
 
 "Are you not allowed to laugh when you go to the zoo and watch the sea lions eat live fish? 
 
 "We weren't laughing because the rabbit died." 
 
 Asger insists he ate the rabbit after the stunt and fully intended to: "It had plenty of meat. We ate it yesterday. It wasn't a full meal for two people, but almost." 
 
 "It wasn't a baby rabbit. It was a young rabbit." 
 
 He went on to talk about skinning it in the garden in front of his young children. "They felt sorry for the rabbit, especially my daughter. But at the same time she was very interested in the process of that rabbit becoming dinner." 
 
 The host told Newsbeat his bosses have been fully behind him, despite the backlash: "I have the full support of the station. I'm going on air this afternoon and we're going to speak to the angry listeners." 
 
 And what does he think they'll say to him? "That I'm an idiot." 
 
 "I don't think I am. You know what? I killed an animal and I ate it. Did you have meat yesterday? Are you going to eat meat today? In that process an animal will die." 
 
 Having said that, he isn't planning on repeating the stunt: "I have no plans to kill other animals within the next couple of days, I must tell you." 
 
 Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat ||||| Mutt that mauled 4-year-old to death was trained to kill by dead child's stepdad 
 
 Nicholas Fevelo for News Saquina Jubeark (c.), the mother of Jayelin Graham, is seen outside her Brooklyn apartment. 
 
 Nicholas Fevelo for News Police said the fatal attack went down in a matter of seconds. Related News Articles 
 
 Daly: Neighbors' premonitions of doom became reality 
 
 The malevolent mutt that fatally mauled a 4-year-old boy as his terrified brothers watched from beneath a bed was trained to kill by the dead child's stepdad, neighbors said Saturday. 
 
 Brooklyn residents who watched Damian Jones walk his powerful pets on the street were shocked but not surprised by the canine carnage that left little Jayelin Graham dead in a blood-spattered bedroom. 
 
 "Those dogs were vicious," said building superintendent Kenny Risher, 50. "They stink and they are nasty. The same dog ate their (pet) rabbit." 
 
 Another neighbor, who tried desperately to help free the child from the brutal Cane Corso dubbed "Machete," said there was no chance of pulling the overmatched boy from the dog's death grip. 
 
 "He was trained to kill," said the 29-year-old man. "He had the boy by his throat. The dog was shaking him. He had no chance." 
 
 But Jones, known as "Animal" or "Dread," and his devastated fiancée Saquina (Honey) Jubeark insisted the death was a tragic accident. 
 
 "He was like a big Scooby-Doo," said Jones, whose Facebook page says he's a fan of the television program "When Animals Attack." 
 
 "He acted like a big kid and just wanted to play." 
 
 Jubeark, a mother of four, was sobbing and hysterical when she returned to the gore-covered apartment after hours of questioning at a Brooklyn police precinct. Later, she absolved her fiancé of any blame. 
 
 "It was not my son's or (Jones') fault," she told The News. "The dog had showed no sign of aggression." 
 
 Jones, who was working when the fatal attack occurred, brought the Italian-bred dog home two months ago. The dogs are large, muscular animals traditionally used to hunt wild boars. 
 
 The couple was preparing for both Jubeark's 24th birthday and their June 10 wedding - two events now linked forever to the horrific killing. 
 
 Police said the fatal attack went down in a matter of seconds, when Jubeark returned to the squalid apartment with her four kids. 
 
 The bride-be-be left her three boys alone in a bedroom as she carried her infant daughter into the hallway to grab her keys from a stroller. 
 
 When she came back, the ferocious dog had its jaws locked on the little boy's neck as his brothers - age 2 and 5 - cowered beneath a nearby bed. Cops needed a tranquilizer gun to take the snarling dog down. 
 
 The child was pronounced dead at Brookdale University Hospital. 
 
 "What a horrible way to die," said the boy's great-grandfather, Ameer Jamaal-Uddin. "I have a lot of frustrations, a lot of emotions, a lot of anger." 
 
 Family and neighbors recalled Jayelin as a happy-go-lucky kid often spotted playing outside. He was the second of his mother's four kids, arriving after 5-year-old Sincere and before Jordan, 2, and 6-month-old Savannah. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The zoo insists the giraffe population must be kept "genetically sound" 
 
 A bid to save a young giraffe from destruction at Copenhagen Zoo has failed, and the giraffe was put down on Sunday morning. 
 
 Thousands of people had signed an online petition appealing for a change of heart over the two-year-old called Marius. 
 
 The zoo said it had no choice because of its duty to avoid in-breeding. 
 
 Marius was killed by a bolt gun, not a lethal injection, which would contaminate the meat. 
 
 A post-mortem examination was broadcast live on the internet. 
 
 A crowd of visitors, including children, watched as the carcass was skinned, cut up and fed to the lions. 
 
 A spokesman for the zoo told the Associated Press the event allowed parents to decide whether their children should watch. 
 
 "I'm actually proud because I think we have given children a huge understanding of the anatomy of a giraffe that they wouldn't have had from watching a giraffe in a photo," Stenbaek Bro told AP. 
 
 The zoo's scientific director, Bengt Holst, told the BBC he had received death threats but would not alter his style of animal management. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Several institutions had offered to house Marius before the giraffe was destroyed 
 
 The UK's Yorkshire Wildlife Park - which has a state-of-the-art giraffe house and the capacity for an extra male - was among several zoos which put in last-ditch offers to take Marius. 
 
 It said it was "saddened" by the killing of the animal. 
 
 'Good practice' 
 
 Stine Jensen, from Denmark's Organisation Against the Suffering of Animals, said the situation "should not have occurred". 
 
 I can't believe it. We offered to save his life. Zoos need to change the way they do business Robert Krijuff, Director of Dutch wildlife park 
 
 "It just shows that the zoo is in fact not the ethical institution that it wants to portray itself as being, because here you have a waste product - that being Marius. 
 
 "Here we have a zoo which thinks that putting this giraffe down instead of thinking of alternatives is the best option," she said. 
 
 But Mr Holst defended Marius's destruction, saying that giraffes had to be selected to ensure the best genes were passed down to ensure the long-term survival of the species. 
 
 He told the BBC it was a responsible practice for zoos to manage their animal populations to ensure they remained healthy, with some 20-30 animals put down at Copenhagen Zoo in a typical year. 
 
 "Giraffes today breed very well, and when they do you have to choose and make sure the ones you keep are the ones with the best genes," Mr Holst told the BBC. 
 
 He said all zoos had been considered and there was no place for Marius - including at Yorkshire where, he said, any space should be reserved for a genetically more important giraffe. The campaign to save him, he said, had gone "much too far". 
 
 Animal rights campaigners have described the move as barbaric and have accused the zoo of being unethical. 
 
 The director of a wildlife park in the Netherlands, Robert Krijuff, whose last-minute offer of a place was also rejected, said: "I can't believe it. We offered to save his life. Zoos need to change the way they do business."
– A Danish radio DJ chose a controversial way of drawing attention to what he sees as the flawed debate over animal welfare: He hit a 9-week-old rabbit named Allan three times with an iron bicycle pump while on the air Monday, then wrung its neck. Later, Asger Juhl of Radio24syv ate it for dinner. Angry listeners have since called for a boycott of the station, and much worse for Juhl himself, reports the BBC. "I did it to show the hypocrisy in the debate," he says. "Many people are outraged by what I did, at the same time many of these people will eat meat. And when they eat meat, an animal will die." Juhl says he consulted with Aalborg Zoo on a humane way to kill rabbits and was told it used an "iron stick." The zookeeper "hits several baby rabbits every week [to feed] the snakes," Juhl explains, per the Local. His employer is unapologetic. The New York Times quotes station editor-in-chief Jorgen Ramskov as saying the rabbit "was taken good care of, it had a nice life, and it was killed in a decent way." Animals endure "horrific suffering on their way to our dinner tables … without it invoking any strong reactions or calls for boycott," a station rep tells Sky News. Perhaps fueling the outcry on social media, per the Times: The station posted two videos on its Facebook page: a 20-second clip showing Juhl cradling and petting a very-alive Allan, and a 10-second clip showing what the station described as pieces of Allan, cooking in a pan. Those two parts are important, argued the station in a Facebook post yesterday. "We knew that we would be accused of provocation. But it is not an empty provocation; the presenters of the program ate the animal after killing it." (It's not the first controversial animal killing in Denmark.)