An animal rights activist has lost her appeal against a conviction for stealing a chicken from a theatre performance in January 2016.

Sandra van de Werd, 56, was again found guilty of stealing the chicken, nickamed Jip the kip, from the theatre school in central Amsterdam where it had a central role in an experiment giving the public the decision whether it should live or die.

If the public voted the chicken should die, it would have been slaughtered by drama student Rick Busscher, who said the experiment was aimed at showing the reality behind eating a piece of chicken.

A lower court decided last December that Van de Werd was guilty of theft because the chicken was not in imminent danger and there was no certainty that it would die. In addition, Van der Werd had refused to return the chicken.

She was not given any sentence because the chicken was eventually returned to its rightful owners and the case had taken so long to come to court.

Jip died a few months after the theft, of natural causes.