Police are not laying charges against the student who killed a chicken in the cafeteria at the Alberta College of Art & Design as part of a public art project.

On Thursday, a student shocked many of his classmates with a live demonstration about where food comes by killing and processing a chicken for eating in front of a room full of other students.

The student, named Miguel, said he wanted to get students talking about the connection between animals and the food we eat "I just want to put it out there that that is the process it takes for that chicken to get to your table."



The whole event was apparently part of a school project.

“I don’t think this is the time to define what is art and what is not, I think that it was just poor judgment from the parties involved. Obviously there were some people in the cafeteria at the time that didn’t know what was going on and it was probably quite disturbing for them,” said Alex Middleton, Director of Communications from ACAD.

Reaction from students was mixed and school administration took the incident seriously.

“We have had a performance incident on campus here and we are currently investigating what happened. We have taken immediate action. We’re putting in place counselling for our students and the ACAD community. Our counsellor was on campus. He did immediately see students and we’ve put out an internal communication from the counsellor,” said Dianne Taylor-Gearing, Vice-President, Research and Academic Affairs at ACAD.

Calgary police responded to the incident and questioned the student.

“Upon arrival the officers were able to determine the act was part of an assignment to perform and film a public protest. We have identified the student involved. We have spoken to him. He wasn’t arrested. He wasn’t charged,” said CPS Acting Inspector, Rick Tuza.

Police have consulted with The Crown and say the incident does not meet the threshold for criminal charges.

(With files from Bill Macfarlane)