Mike became “the Headless Chicken” on September 10th, 1945 after being decapitated by his owner, Lloyd Olsen from Fruita, Colorado, who wanted to cook him for dinner.

During Mike’s attempted decapitation, Llyod hit all the wrong (or right) spots, leaving Mike headless but still alive. Baffled, the owner had a change of heart and decided to nurse the rooster back to health.

Olsen took Mike to the University of Utah where flabbergasted scientists took a close look at the death-defying chicken. According to them, a blood clot prevented Mike from bleeding to death after Olsen’s ax had missed the jugular.

As if by miracle, Mike was still left with his left ear and most of his brain stem intact which was enough to keep this feathered critter healthy for the following two years of his life.

Apparently chicken’s reflexes lie in their brain stem which explains why Mike still attempted to peck and even sing – gurgle rather, despite his handicap.

Naturally, people being people: “Mike and Olsen’s story inspired other people to behead their chicken in an attempt to create another living headless miracle. Some unlucky birds did survive but only for a short time.”

WTF, people. Come on.

Via Oddity Central.

A South African laboratory that tested a number of Belgian racing pigeons has found that traces of doping in samples taken from six of them.

The results showed traces of drugs in no fewer than six birds. [T]races of cocaine were found in one of the birds tested.

All 20 samples had already been analyzed by a Belgian laboratory that found no traces of drugs in any of them.

Via Flanders News.

The Europris discount shop thought putting realistic plastic human body parts in their freezers would help their customers get into the Halloween spirit.

However, they were rather surprised to discover that parents who came in with their kids were furious after, among witches and monster costumes, they found severed human body parts wrapped in plastic and packed just like ordinary meat products.

The bloody limbs, which came from a made-up butcher called “Chop Shop”, not only looked incredibly realistic, they also came with nutritional information stickers, which only added to the gruesomeness of the whole thing.

Best Facebook quote from an outraged client: “There’s no doubt my children would have been terrified if they’d seen this in the shops. I think it’s such a shame that we have an American tradition so violently forced down our throats.”

I wonder if they would sell these in bulk over the Internet? I wonder how many friends’ freezers I could sneak these into before anyone noticed…?

Via Oddity Central.