Denmark Zoo Wants Your Pet… for Lunch: 

Denmark ‘s Aalborg Zoo is asking people to donate their pets. Not so they can become attractions, but so that they can become the attractions’ meals. 

The Zoo put out a call for unwanted animals on social media. Rabbits, chickens, guinea pigs, and even small horses are on the ‘menu’. Critics quickly called the practice out as “cruel” and “incredibly disturbing.”  However, the Zoo argues that it is necessary to provide carnivores with as natural as possible a diet. 

One facebook user summed it up: “What did people think these animals were eating? Beyond Burgers?”

The post quickly turned into an online debate. Commenters quickly took sides—some defended the zoo’s natural-diet logic, while others were quick to point out the ridiculousness of serving up their pets. Still others reveled in inventing the most absurd ‘donation suggestions’ imaginable. There seemed to be a lot of unwanted spouses, relatives, and kids that facebook users were happy to part with. 

Is this seat taken?: 

There are plenty of things that it would make sense to steal a thousand of—a thousand dollars, a thousand diamonds, a thousand… chairs? 

Spanish police have arrested seven people suspected of stealing 1100 chairs from restaurants and bars in Madrid over the course of two months. The chairs in question are usually made of metal or hard plastic, and kept in stacks and chained down. Authorities say that the thieves often operated in the night, targeting restaurants where chairs were left outside. In August and September, the group stole the chairs from 18 different establishments, making off with an estimated value of 60,000 Euros. Those are some pretty expensive chairs. 

 Police are still investigating the motive behind the unusual heist. The group resold them both in Spain and abroad, making police suspect they’re dealing with a criminal enterprise, rather than petty theft or some kind of prank. All seven face charges of both theft and belonging to a criminal organization. 

A Meal to Die For:

Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old mother of two, was charged with killing three of her estranged husband’s relatives with poisonous mushrooms in a home-cooked meal. 

She was accused of deliberately putting death cap mushrooms in the beef wellington she served to her husband’s aunt, uncle, and parents under the pretense of a friendly lunch. All the four relatives who attended fell violently ill, and three later died. Her husband, though also invited, refused to attend. He believed the lunch was an attempt on his life. According to him, his wife had tried to poison him on multiple occasions long before the deadly meal. 

Patterson told the police that she herself fell ill after the lunch, and that she fed the leftovers to her children. She also told them that she had bought the mushrooms from a supermarket. These claims all turned out to be lies. She had actually seen the location of the mushrooms posted on a science website, and foraged them herself. The dehydrator she used to dry them was dumped at a waste recycling center. During the lunch, she served her guests on larger plates, and ate off of a plate that was a different size and color than the others. 

Patterson now faces three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The trial is ongoing, and she continues to deny all accusations.