I don’t have a strong stomach. I’ve never been able to watch more than 10 minutes of docos such as Meet Your Meat (see video below) or Earthlings.
So to switch on the television today and be confronted by cows being slaughtered on a British show called Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, I was immediately sickened — yet intrigued — to see exactly what the message of the show would be.
A group of men and women were brought to see the slaughter process, from viewing the live animal to watching the cows throats being slashed (courtesy of “Steve the Slaughterman”) and finally to the flesh served up on a plate before them (sliced and diced by “John the Butcher”).
I agree with the aim of the show, which is to connect people with the animal they’re eating, and then gauge their reactions to see if they will still eat the meat once they’ve seen how it gets to their plate. Yet I think the show missed two critical steps.
1) The audience briefly saw the animals through glass and didn’t get to personally interact and connect with them;
2) No one participated in the killing themselves.
Despite seeing heads being sliced off and gallons of blood loss (which I saw through tear-soaked, hand-covered eyes), the slaughtering was done at the hands of others, therefore removing any of the participants from the real process.
Of course, you can be certain the volunteer line for something like that would be shorter than a queue to buy ice in Antarctica. But I strongly believe if we want to eat animals, we should be prepared to kill them ourselves (and do so consciously).
Chef Ed Baines was one of the onlookers, who, despite working with meat, had never witnessed a slaughter.
“Before it began I told myself I’d happily give up eating beef if it disturbs me,” he said. “I was initially sad, but once the head was cut off, it became beef.”
Some other quotes from Kill It, Cook It, Eat It:
“It was fine at first. Seeing the cow kicking put me off. I will now think about where beef comes from.”
“I could sense death, so couldn’t see the process.”
“The guys who were going through the whole process had such wonderful craftsmanship.”
“The meat is wobbly because rigamortis hasn’t set in yet. When it does it’s firmer to work with.”
