Dane Bolding, University Of Maine Student, Attempts To Kill Bunny For Film Class Final Project

A University of Maine documentary film class took a turn for the weird on Saturday when a student almost butchered and skinned a live rabbit before his professor and classmates, reports the Bangor Daily News.

Dane Bolding had intended for the act to serve as his final project for the film course. He was stopped by the course's co-instructor Mike Scott before he did the deed -- but not before raising a knife to the rabbit's throat, to the horror of many of his classmates.

Student Chris Michaud told the Daily News that "when [Bolding] whipped out the knife, people started screaming, crying, running out of the room."

The class had been instructed to submit a final project inspired by films shown at the four-day Camden Film Festival. Bolding, who had not attended the class during which students presented first drafts, shocked professors and students alike with his near grim-reaper act.

Bolding met with an associate dean about the incident and may face educational and developmental sanctions. Maine's student handbook states that use of live animals in class must be approved by a school committee.

Bolding, for his part, says he did not mean to shock his classmates. According to the student, who regularly kills and cooks his own meat, his project was intended to expose an essential, if brutal, part of human existence. In an e-mail to the Maine Campus, Bolding cryptically wrote:

The average American has wiped their hands and souls clean of the ugly truth about our nature and history rather than admitting to it and working through the difficult discourses this reality presents to our consciences.

Bolding's would-be victim was purchased by a few of his classmates, who have offered the furry creature a home for the time being.

Do you think Bolding crossed a line? Let us know in the comments section.