Choreographed encounters with death in Copenhagen Zoo, such as school and public dissections, emphasize the importance of touch and are underpinned by the moral imperative to understand the nature of life and death. Such encounters are framed by zoo educators as contributing to a deeper environmental awareness. Taking the role of dead animals in the educational activities of Copenhagen Zoo as the focus, this article examines the underpinning ideology of choreographed encounters with animal death through participant observation of school and public dissections and carcass feeding, in addition to semi-structured open interviews with educational staff. Advancing literature on the pedagogy of death and the role of animals in education, this analysis illustrates how anthropocentric conceptualizations of nature as a resource to be exploited, protected, and saved infuse the pedagogy of dissection. Taking the stickiness of these encounters seriously, a posthuman lens reveals the problematic attachments and violent detachments that touching animal flesh in out-of-school contexts produces.