For those interested in headless chickens you might want to check out the following
websites. They report on Mike, a chicken that had his head cut off in 1945 and
managed to live for at least 18 months after that. Apparently most of his head was
chopped off but the brainstem was intact. The owners fed him with an eyedropper
through the open esophagus. The first site below has photos of Mike that appeared in
Life Magazine back in 1945. The town of Fruita Colorado even has a day in honor of
Mike the chicken.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/headless_chicken/mike.html
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0517d.htm
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0511b.htm
Mike's case seems to support the cut location hypothesis.
Richard Platt
St. Mary's College of Maryland
