Teacher gets death threats over game cookery lessons

A HOME economics teacher has received death threats from animal rights activists for allowing pupils to butcher game.

The threats to Rachel Richards came after Kingussie High School in Inverness-shire posted videos online of students preparing pheasants for food. But third-year pupils this week defied the extremists by skinning and butchering a rabbit, before turning it into a jalfrezi curry.

Graphic step-by-step images show a rabbit lying on a chopping board next to a knife before one teenager demonstrates how to prepare it for a meal, as other pupils watch.

Last week, a cookery class at the school prepared and cooked grouse from scratch.

On social media, there was overwhelming support for the school’s determination to continue teaching butchery skills. Kerr Middleton said: ‘Fantastic. It’s a pity... a large number of people in society now thinks this is unacceptable. God help us.’

The school shared the post on Facebook, writing: ‘There is nothing better than peer-led lessons.’ Mrs Richards, 49, said yesterday: ‘The kids have an understanding of it and are happy to prepare the meat themselves.’

But Dawn Carr, director of vegan corporate projects at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the images were ‘straight out of a horror movie’.