A Danish radio host has killed a baby rabbit with a bicycle pump live on air, prompting a storm of criticism despite claims the station had simply wanted to highlight cruelty in farming.

The broadcaster said radio host Asger Juhl on Monday killed the rabbit, named Allan, with repeated blows to the head to highlight “hypocrisy” in Danes’ attitudes towards animal welfare.

The stunt left listeners and animal rights groups horrified.

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But the station’s boss, Radio24syv CEO Jorgen Ramskov, defended the act in an interview with Sky News UK.

“We wanted to raise a discussion about why animal welfare is an issue for some animals but not for other animals,” he told Sky News UK.

Baby Allan awaits his fate. Photo: Twitter

“In Denmark, at least, we have a very industrialised agricultural industry and a lot of these animals in this sector are not basically viewed as animals, they’re machines delivering meat to our tables and we don’t really care about their animal welfare.

“We have some animals that we have decided that we care about their animal welfare and that discrepancy we wanted to address.

“The rabbit is something you can eat, but also an animal we care a lot about. Why don’t we care for a piglet, why don’t we care for a small cow, or lamb?”

He also insisted the radio had taken advice from experts on how to kill rabbit “instantly and in a way that the animal doesn’t suffer”.

“According to the person from the zoo, that’s how you kill a rabbit,” he said.

“I am sure there are other ways to kill rabbits.”

During the stunt, reality TV star and animal rights activist Linse Kessler tried to grab the animal and chased Juhl around the studio several times before being asked to leave.

“They wanted to see if they could kill him in the end or if they had gotten too attached to him,” she said in a video clip on her Facebook page.

Ms Kessler said she thought she was capable of wresting the animal from Mr Juhl but feared it would die a more painful death if she grabbed it.

International reactions on social media were overwhelmingly negative, with users calling the radio host “sick” and “sadistic”, even after the station issued a statement in English.

While journalist Brian Esbensen tweeted: “What if people were just as outraged over drowned refugees.”

Radio DJ bludgeons baby rabbit to death on air… http://t.co/OhGiHMsYNU  pic.twitter.com/8bFUdtHoaG via @ViralSpell ..

— UBMS (@ubms) May 26, 2015

Do you @asgerjuhl plan to murder a baby with a brick on @Radio24syv to highlight that murder is wrong? #scum #murderer #killer #babyrabbit

— Andy Sshot (@Andysshot) May 26, 2015

@rickygervais sick monsters #shocking http://t.co/Rmi5Jwa0F2

— Emma Hayes (@EmmaHayes25) May 26, 2015

– with ABC