Two men face charges for chewing live mice
Date: 14-Jun-04
Country: AUSTRALIA
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the men engaged in an outrageous act of cruelty by accepting a challenge in front of a cheering crowd to place the mice in their mouths and bite off their tails.
RSPCA chief inspector Byron Hall told ABC TV the men were then challenged to chew up the mice, and they did.
"(This) would involve...bursting its internal organs and crushing its skull. The animal would have been in extreme amounts of pain and it's just totally unacceptable," Hall said.
For the mice to have been present, the stunt would have had to have been premeditated, he said.
The men were competing for a A$500 (190 pound) holiday weekend on Queensland's Gold Coast.
They now face fines of up to A$75,000 or two years in prison.
Management of the bar, Brisbane's Exchange Hotel, said the mice-chewing competition was staged against its knowledge and action had been taken against staff involved.
