Caroline Kennedy accused her cousin of blending mice and chicken in a scathing letter to senators, adding to the list of unusual stories about his relationship to animals

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Anna Lazarus Caplan

Published on January 30, 2025 04:52PM EST

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• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is claimed to have a troubling history with animals, from allegedly blending mice to beheading a whale
• The longtime falconer, who is President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health, collects roadkill to feed his birds of prey.
• Caroline Kennedy called her cousin a “predator” in her letter to senators on Tuesday, Jan. 28

On the eve of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings to become the country’s next health secretary, his cousin Caroline Kennedy made a shocking claim that revived the conversation about his relationship with animals.

Among a series of allegations included in a letter to senators, Caroline, 67, claimed that her 71-year-old cousin, a falconer who trains ravens, once “enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks.” She added, “It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”

RFK Jr.’s past includes numerous occasions in which he has displayed unusual behavior related to his pet birds of prey and other animals he’s encountered. Among other instances of violence related to animals, Bobby’s 36-year-old daughter, Kick Kennedy, recalled in a 2012 interview that her father once beheaded a whale.

While speaking to Town & Country, Kick discussed her memories from the family’s Hyannis Port, Mass., home, telling the publication about a time when her father heard that a dead whale had washed up on the shores of Squaw Island.

RFK Jr.’s Daughter Said He Once Beheaded a Whale with a Chainsaw. A Ben Affleck Dating Rumor Unearthed the Story

Bobby, who has a passion for studying animal skulls and bones, rushed over to the beach with a chainsaw, and Kick said that when he arrived, he cut the whale’s head off and used a bungee cord to tie it to the top of their minivan. He then drove the family five hours to Mount Kisco, N.Y., with the whale fastened on the roof.

All of which made a lasting impression on Kick, who was 6 at the time. “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” she recalled in the interview. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”

Following Kirk’s account, a spokesperson for the National Marine Fisheries Service confirmed to the Associated Press in September 2024 that authorities had opened an investigation into the incident.

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In response, Bobby said at a campaign rally stop in Glendale, Ariz. that he received a letter “saying they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago.” The AP reported that he “repeatedly declined to elaborate on the investigation when questioned by reporters after his appearance,” only saying that it was “gossipy nonsense.”

Per CNN, the investigation was closed a month later in October. 

As RFK Jr. began to make headlines in 2024 for his short-lived presidential run, other stories from his past resurfaced — including the time he dumped a dead bear in Central Park.

The politician said in an Aug. 4, 2024 video that a decade ago, he saw a bear get hit and killed by a car in front of him during a falconing trip in upstate New York. He loaded the dead bear into his vehicle, and was planning to take it home so he could put the meat in his refrigerator. 

However, Bobby didn’t have time to stop at home between the hawking trip and a scheduled dinner in New York City. He ultimately decided to ditch the roadkill — because he needed to catch a flight — and stage it as a bike accident in Central Park, thinking it would go unquestioned. 

Caroline Kennedy Alleges Her Cousin RFK Jr. Put Mice in Blenders and Worse: All the Claims in Her Shocking Takedown Video

But the mysterious incident became a national news story, with John F. Kennedy‘s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, even reporting on the dead cub for The New York Times in October 2014. “The mystery of the bear cub found dead on Monday in Central Park is one step closer to being solved: It was revealed on Tuesday that she died after being hit by a car,” Schlossberg reported at the time.

“I was worried because my prints were all over that bike … Luckily, the story died down after a while,” Bobby said in the 2024 video.

While appearing in court to testify in a lawsuit that sought to exclude him from the state’s ballot in November, Kennedy confirmed to reporters that he’s long had a relationship with roadkill. “I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life. I have a freezer full of it,” he told reporters, via the Associated Press.

However, Kennedy no longer has a 21 cubic foot refrigerator where he stored roadkill, his campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear told the AP last year.

By Jack Guy, CNN

Published Jan 29, 2025 11:05 AM PST | Updated Jan 29, 2025 11:05 AM PST

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/amateur-fossil-hunter-finds-66-million-year-old-animal-vomit/1739386

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A piece of animal vomit found on a Denmark beach was examined and found to be 66 million years old. The discovery led to new knowledge about saline predators prey and food at that time.

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(CNN) — An amateur fossil hunter has uncovered a piece of animal vomit dating back 66 million years on a beach in Denmark.

Peter Bennicke noticed a “strange small cluster of lily pieces in a piece of chalk” at Stevns Klint in eastern Denmark, according to a statement from Geomuseum Faxe, a local museum where the find will be displayed, sent to CNN on Wednesday.

Bennicke brought the fossil to the museum, where it was cleaned and examined by John Jagt, a lily expert from the Netherlands.

Jagt said the cluster contains at least two species of lily combined in a round lump, which is likely the indigestible parts of the lilies that were regurgitated by an animal that ate the plants.

“In technical terms, this type of find is called regurgitalite, and they are considered very important when reconstructing ancient ecosystems because they provide valuable information about which animals were eaten by whom,” reads the statement.

Jesper Milàn, curator at Geomuseum Faxe, said the fossil “is truly an extraordinary find.”

“Lilies are not a particularly nutritious food, as they are mainly made up of calcium plates held together by very few soft tissues,” he said in the statement.

“But here we have an animal, most likely some kind of fish, that 66 million years ago ate lilies that lived on the seabed of the Cretaceous Sea and then vomited up the skeletal parts.”

Milàn added that the discovery “provides important new knowledge about the relationship between predators and prey and the food chains of the Cretaceous seas.”