The animal was one of two striped dolphins who died after they got stranded on a beach in Onsala on Saturday, near Gothenburg in western Sweden.
Dolphins are not uncommon in Sweden, but this species is usually found in much warmer climes than a Nordic winter.
“You can really wonder how they ended up here in February. Maybe they followed a school of fish and went astray,” biologist Anders M Nilsson of Gothenburg's natural history museum told Sweden's public broadcaster SVT earlier this week.
One of the dolphins. Photo: Anders M Nilsson/Göteborgs Naturhistoriska museum/Västarvet
The pair were taken to Sweden's National Veterinary Institute in Uppsala for an autopsy, designed to offer more information on how they got there. But on Thursday SVT caused an outrage among viewers when it decided it would be a good idea to broadcast the dissection live on its 'Gomorron Sverige' ('Good morning Sweden') show.
Not everyone agreed, and immediately took to social media to exclaim their dissatisfaction when one of the veterinaries put their knife to the dolphin's body in front of the SVT reporter's cameras.
“Choked on my coffee. An autopsy of a dead dolphin in the morning. Yuck!” wrote one person on Twitter.
Satte kaffet i halsen, obduktion på en död delfin på morgonen! Usch! #gomorronsverige #svt
— Medina Adilova (@MedinaAdilova) February 18, 2016
“Macabre,” commented one, while another wrote: “I think most people DON'T want to see a dead dolphin being cut up on morning TV. What was the reporter thinking?”
Jag tror de flesta INTE vill se en död delfin sprättas upp i morgon-tv. Hur tänkte reportern där? #svt
— Stefan Fagré (@StefanF66) February 18, 2016
However, others were quick to defend SVT.
One Twitter user argued: “Murder, violence, rape, sex, nudity and so on on TV but when a dolphin is dissected people scream. It's interesting.”
Verkligen mord, våld, våldtäkter, sex, nakenhet mm på tv men när en delfin obduceras så skriker folk.#intressant ju https://t.co/TZOFYv40UU
— Tomas Bergström (@TomasBergstrm) February 18, 2016
It gets a lot more gory than the screenshot we have published, so for those of you wanting to make up your own minds, you can watch the clip here from around two hours and 20 minutes in.
The Local has contacted SVT for a comment.
A Scandinavian zoo has previously caused similar uproar when it dissected lions and an antelopes in public, in front of a class of school children. But unperturbed staff at Odense Zoo in Denmark told The Local last month that they would continue the 20-year-old practice in the name of science and education.