Anyone been watching this? It's a series of hour-long shows throwing light on how abattoirs work in this country. Only, not by visiting an actual abattoir (undercover-style), but by bringing the process into a specially-designed TV studio.
The "selling point" is how graphic the slaughtering process is. The first episode featured a group of piglets, who were each stunned by an electric current, had their throats slit, were hung upside down to drain, dropped into a vat of warm water, and then had their innards removed.
It was all grimly fascinating and uncomfortable to watch. The studio audience were pressed up against glass, watching everything like it was the execution of some Death Row prisoners. Watchdog's Julia Bradbury was our deadpan host, and reminded us comprehensively that things were going to be uncensored and graphic.
And it was. But, once you'd seen the first kill, it got easier to watch. It's amazing how desensitized you can become, very quickly. Of course, it helps that nobody (except the pig farmer himself) had formed any kind of bond to the animals. If BBC3 had scheduled the film Babe beforehand, things may have been different...
As a meat-eater, I can't deny it made me think about how much I take bacon, sausages and pork for granted. The next morning, I was frying some sausages and I couldn't help but imagine a poor little piggy trotting nonchalatantly down a ramp to his imminent death. But I ate the sausages.
As if to make us feel better, the first episode's culminated with a look at how the Spanish do things. One small town takes great pleasure In slaughtering suckling piglets at just 3 weeks of age. The overall process was grizzlier, with the pigs thrown disrespectfully into a pile, to spasm distastefully.
I'm sure things are better in the UK, by and large -- although I'm not convinced every abattoir is as respectful and clean as Kill It, Cook It, Eat It says. If so, why not do the show from a real location? I've heard stories of slaughterhouse workers taking a sick pleasure in their work, or bosses putting profit above everything (and "processing" animals at high-speed). I even heard about a weird "ritual", where slaughterers would get a new knife and practically cut their own thumb off to test its sharpness – with the workforce full of men with stitched-up digits.
Exaggerated horror stories, passed on by men in pubs? Perhaps. I certainly hope the real abattoirs are as clean, efficient and respectful as the one on this TV show. But, I'm just not sure.
Regardless, the show is an eye-opening glimpse at the mass killing that fills our stomachs. It didn't turn me vegetarian, but I think it's a good thing to know what goes into putting meat on a supermarket shelf.
Last night's episode focused on goats. It was essentially the same programme, but... with goats. It was a little bit more upsetting, mainly because the goats were more vocal than the piggies, bleating away before they were stunned.
So what's the point? Well, it seems to be about whether taste should take priority over the welfare of an animal, and how young is too young when it comes to eating young animals? My thoughts echoed the majority: I don't have a problem with eating animals (it's natural and has been going on since early man first speared an antelope in Africa), and I'd prefer to see baby animals live a decent life away from their mother, before being slaughtered.
Kill It, Cook It, Eat It isn't sensationalist, but it's a little bit misguided. I don’t think a carefully-organized studio environment really shows the "truth" of anything. A hidden camera investigation would have been more enlightening… but would have lost the show its post-slaughter Kilroy-style interviews of ambivalent/distraught audience members, or the final taste test – where the recently deceased are served up as meals.
And is animal death the new vogue for 2008? Over on Channel 4, Jamie Oliver is going to unflinchingly show how chickens are raised and killed in Jamie's Fowl Dinners -- as part of that confusing Big Food Fight season with fellow chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gordon Ramsey.
It's almost enough to put me off my roast dinner.
7 – 10 January 2008
BBC3, 10.30 pm
The "selling point" is how graphic the slaughtering process is. The first episode featured a group of piglets, who were each stunned by an electric current, had their throats slit, were hung upside down to drain, dropped into a vat of warm water, and then had their innards removed.
It was all grimly fascinating and uncomfortable to watch. The studio audience were pressed up against glass, watching everything like it was the execution of some Death Row prisoners. Watchdog's Julia Bradbury was our deadpan host, and reminded us comprehensively that things were going to be uncensored and graphic.
And it was. But, once you'd seen the first kill, it got easier to watch. It's amazing how desensitized you can become, very quickly. Of course, it helps that nobody (except the pig farmer himself) had formed any kind of bond to the animals. If BBC3 had scheduled the film Babe beforehand, things may have been different...
As a meat-eater, I can't deny it made me think about how much I take bacon, sausages and pork for granted. The next morning, I was frying some sausages and I couldn't help but imagine a poor little piggy trotting nonchalatantly down a ramp to his imminent death. But I ate the sausages.
As if to make us feel better, the first episode's culminated with a look at how the Spanish do things. One small town takes great pleasure In slaughtering suckling piglets at just 3 weeks of age. The overall process was grizzlier, with the pigs thrown disrespectfully into a pile, to spasm distastefully.
I'm sure things are better in the UK, by and large -- although I'm not convinced every abattoir is as respectful and clean as Kill It, Cook It, Eat It says. If so, why not do the show from a real location? I've heard stories of slaughterhouse workers taking a sick pleasure in their work, or bosses putting profit above everything (and "processing" animals at high-speed). I even heard about a weird "ritual", where slaughterers would get a new knife and practically cut their own thumb off to test its sharpness – with the workforce full of men with stitched-up digits.
Exaggerated horror stories, passed on by men in pubs? Perhaps. I certainly hope the real abattoirs are as clean, efficient and respectful as the one on this TV show. But, I'm just not sure.
Regardless, the show is an eye-opening glimpse at the mass killing that fills our stomachs. It didn't turn me vegetarian, but I think it's a good thing to know what goes into putting meat on a supermarket shelf.
Last night's episode focused on goats. It was essentially the same programme, but... with goats. It was a little bit more upsetting, mainly because the goats were more vocal than the piggies, bleating away before they were stunned.
So what's the point? Well, it seems to be about whether taste should take priority over the welfare of an animal, and how young is too young when it comes to eating young animals? My thoughts echoed the majority: I don't have a problem with eating animals (it's natural and has been going on since early man first speared an antelope in Africa), and I'd prefer to see baby animals live a decent life away from their mother, before being slaughtered.
Kill It, Cook It, Eat It isn't sensationalist, but it's a little bit misguided. I don’t think a carefully-organized studio environment really shows the "truth" of anything. A hidden camera investigation would have been more enlightening… but would have lost the show its post-slaughter Kilroy-style interviews of ambivalent/distraught audience members, or the final taste test – where the recently deceased are served up as meals.
And is animal death the new vogue for 2008? Over on Channel 4, Jamie Oliver is going to unflinchingly show how chickens are raised and killed in Jamie's Fowl Dinners -- as part of that confusing Big Food Fight season with fellow chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gordon Ramsey.
It's almost enough to put me off my roast dinner.
7 – 10 January 2008
BBC3, 10.30 pm
