Farmer Roddy and Headless Chicken Mike
Nongfu Rodi looked at the scene in front of him with stunned eyes
A white rooster that has just been slaughtered,
I actually stood up straight!
And its chicken head is on the ground not far away!
It has no head, but it is still alive!
And lived healthily for "18 months"...
01, the "miracle" under the slaughter
September 1945 was a sunny day.
Roddy, a farmer who lives in Fruta, Colorado, prepares for the evening's family dinner.
Tonight, his mother-in-law's family will come over and have dinner with them.
The main course of dinner was chicken, and Roddy's farm had a lot of chickens, and he knew that his mother-in-law loved chicken very much.
So, with a thousand choices, Roddy put the three fat and tender roosters together and began to slaughter.
It was also at this time that he discovered something "weird"...
He clearly remembered that he had just cut off the heads of three chickens with a sharp knife.
Then throw it aside and prepare to wait until it is no longer struggling before doing the follow-up.
However, looking at the scene in front of him, Roddy suddenly felt a chill in his back!
Headless Rooster Mike
One of the white roosters actually stood upright!
And its head, just on the ground not far away...
That's right, Roddy swallowed, again!
Oh my God, it's still alive!
The rooster, which has no head, is also trying to trim the feathers with the missing head,
Then, it calmly walked a few laps in the chicken pen...
Faced with such a somewhat horrific scene, Roddy and his family had no heart for anything else.
I just want to keep an eye on this "headless chicken" and watch its every movement.
Roddy later recalled that scene, still shocked.
That night, the headless rooster was carried back to the nest.
And it also covers its mutilated head with its wings and sleeps like other normal roosters.
Only occasionally there will be a few wailing sounds...
02, headless chicken Mike
Roddy finally calmed down, and he accepted the miracle in front of him.
Although, he couldn't think of a broken head, why a rooster without a head could survive!
If Providence is so, then He will be kind to this rooster with a "great destiny".
So the Roddy family named the rooster, Mike, and took care of it.
But here's the problem.
Mike has no head, no mouth, how does it eat?
The attentive Roddy also found that Mike's severed parts, bare esophagus and trachea, often secreted mucus.
If not cleaned up in time, Mike is in danger of suffocation...
So Roddy began to clean up the mucus for Mike from time to time every day.
He also put corn kernels, milk, green vegetable leaves, rice, corn into a blender and beat it into a paste.
Using something like a dropper, liquid food is then fed into Mike's esophagus.
In this way, the problem of Mike's inability to eat on his own is solved!
Under the careful care of Roddy, the headless chicken Mike actually "gained weight" a lot.
Subsequently, the story of The Headless Chicken Mike first spread in the town, and then spread as quickly as if it had grown wings.
However, back then, no more than now, no picture and no truth story,
It was scorned by many people, thinking that this was a scam!
Nongfu Roddy just laughed at this!
Obviously, headless chicken Mike is real and doesn't need to be believed or not.
His farm, on the other hand, has become better because of this story.
03. The "Touring Exhibition" that swept the United States
Of course, for such a strange thing, the sensitive news media will not let go,
Soon, someone contacted Roddy, hoping to plan a nationwide tour for The Headless Chicken Mike!
In the beginning, Roddy rejected the proposal.
He felt that his farm business was much better, that he had entrusted Himk's blessing and improved his life.
Why do you need to do any touring exhibitions?
However, the huge economic benefit temptation and the curiosity of more and more people about the "headless chicken",
In the end, it made Roddy make up his mind.
So, the American "Life Monthly" and Roddy signed a contract -
People watch headless chicken mikes, need to buy tickets to enter, the ticket price is 25 cents,
According to the exchange rate at that time, it was equivalent to RMB 2 yuan.
For the next 18 months, Roddy took Mike through carnivals and public events.
People across the United States, in order to see the "headless chicken mike" for themselves, don't care about the 25 cent ticket money!
They were captivated by this incredible miracle...
Roddy's income is also growing rapidly, and at most he can earn $4500 a month!
Headless Chicken Mike quickly became popular, according to today's words,
Mike became a proper "net red chicken".
Even the media giant Time Magazine wrote a reporting article specifically for it.
Of course, in these 18 months, Roddy has also encountered unavoidable troubles!
Many people from animal protection groups have come forward to accuse Roddy of abusing animals for profit.
The cause of these criticisms comes from the "pickled chicken head" displayed by Roddy during the tour.
Probably to enhance the effect of the tour, the organizers used a pickled chicken head to exhibit with Mike,
This does increase the interest of visitors, but it disgusts animal protection organizations!
They think this practice is naked abuse!
However, when these people saw how carefully and gently Roddy fed Mike, they changed their minds.
It turns out that without Roddy's care, Headless Chicken Mike really couldn't survive!
04. Sudden accident
It's March 1947.
It's been a full 18 months since Mike was beheaded and miraculously survived.
Under Roddy's meticulous care, Mike's weight also increased significantly, from 2,5 pounds to 8 pounds.
However, on March 17, an irreparable accident occurred!
The national tour has arrived in Phoenix, Arizona,
On this day, because the tour was too hot, Roddy was very busy.
When the tour is over, Roddy takes Mike back to the hotel to rest, while injecting Mike with a syringe.
Suddenly there was a blockage of the trachea...
Despite Roddy's efforts to help Mike regain his breathing,
However, it is still too late!
After a few minutes, Mike flapped his wings a few times and lay motionless on the ground!
And so, Mike, who had experienced death,
This time it really died... Suffocate to death!
05, the mystery of immortality
So, why can the headless rooster Mike live for another 18 months?
It's time to solve the mystery...
Poultry physiologists and neurobiologists from the University of Arkansas,
After dissecting Mike's body, a scientific explanation was given.
The reason why this "immortal miracle" occurs is actually related to the special structure of the chicken's head.
Most of the brain tissue of the chicken is mainly concentrated in the second half of the chicken head,
That is, the back of the chicken's skull, and behind the eyes.
Be aware of this key location! It is precisely because of such a location characteristic,
When Roddy slaughtered Mike, he inadvertently completed an "extremely precise" surgical operation!
Although it looks like Roddy is cutting off Mike's head,
In fact, he only cut off Mike's beak, face, eyes, and one ear.
Such a one in ten million chance, so that the rooster Mike is equivalent to a lobectomy,
After surgery, you can still maintain basic vital signs, have a heartbeat, and can breathe!
It can be said that this is an unprecedented miracle of life!
Also, fortunately, after the slaughter at that time,
Mike's wound did not have a large amount of blood loss, but quickly coagulated.
It was also Mike who escaped the fate of dying due to massive blood loss...
Therefore, this is a "coincidence" that is difficult to replicate,
I am afraid that no matter how clever the surgeon in the world is, it will be difficult to repeat this resection miracle...
06, Forever Mike
The magical headless chicken Mike though dead,
But in the city of Fruta, where it was born, it was decided to make Mike the representative animal of the city!
The municipality has decided to designate the third weekend of May each year as "Headless Chicken Mac Day",
And will hold a variety of activities in memory of Mike,
Such as throwing eggs, playing chickens, dancing chickens, etc., this is also a carnival for the citizens of Fruta.
I have to say that this is a very characteristic American madness.
And, of course, a successful city brand marketing!