Mike the headless chicken

Linky to the official site of the rather gruesome and sadistic story of Mike, the headless chicken. I think it was horrid of them to torture the poor chicken like that, but it's quite intriguing scientifically.

The chicken managed to survive for 18 months after his head had been loped off, because most of his brain stem was still left intact. As the behavior of chickens is mainly reflex actions controlled by the brain stem, Mike shrugged off the beheading and continued living his chickenly life without his head.