Kill it, cook it, eat it? No thanks, i'll make mine a carrot.

The series of programmes entitled ‘Kill it, cook it, eat it,’ which aired on BBC3 at the beginning of March, showing how animals are killed for consumption was just a little upsetting, (that’s an understatement) to the point where I couldn’t stomach watching more than a couple of minutes. I have to be honest, I wasn’t really keen on the adverts either.
Looking at reviews of the programmes on the Guardian website, it does appear the general consensus was that people found themselves a little nauseous, even the smattering of meat eaters, although one mentioned road kill, lets not go there.
I have to ask, who came up with this programme concept? Did he/she think we don’t see animals being slaughtered enough? Here are some of the reviews and comments from the Guardian website. There are some good points raised.
(http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/03/first_night_kill_it_cook_it_ea.html)

Nancy Banks-Smith in the Guardian:
"The praiseworthy premise of the series is to show viewers how our meat is raised, slaughtered and butchered. The catch will be finding those viewers. The abattoir was small and local. The slaughterman and the butcher were brothers. A restaurant-cum-viewing theatre had been built next door so diners could see precisely how their dinner died.
"The point of death," said the attendant vet, "is difficult to describe." Dear God, that's disturbing. Are you dead when your brain dies? Or your heart stops? Or when the twitching ceases? The cows flailed long after they had been stunned and were, technically, dead. One drummed its hind leg repeatedly on the abattoir ceiling. A chemical change in the muscles, apparently. My gorge rose and I didn't know I had one.
"The presenter's questions were serious and to the point. The process was clinical and practised. The fillet steak, which would normally have been hung, was unusually warm and wobbly, but the diners - a weeping vegetarian excepted - were reassured and found no difficulty in eating it. Including one Anton du Beke, who said he needed the protein for his ballroom dancing."

Carol Midgley in The Times:
"At the beginning of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It we were assured that the abattoir where the animals would be killed had not been altered at all for the purposes of the programme to avoid "distressing" them. Yes, because in normal circumstances of course slaughterhouses are very soothing places for animals...I should declare here that I am a vegetarian (albeit a hypocritical one who likes leather boots) and the human race's habit of turning a blind eye to the rearing and slaughter process drives me mad so apologies for ranting....any hopes of a Damascene conversion were dashed....because although this was commendable television, it was a cop out....For the majority of farmed animals their lives are so hideous that the death part is the lesser of their worries."

Comments
No. I was under the impression that meat had to be hung in order to eat it, not served up warm and still twitching. Enough to make you a veggie, were it not for the delights of foie gras and larks tongues.
Posted by nationwide on March 6, 2007 11:24 AM.

I have no way of backing this as it was an offhand comment I heard but is it true the vegetarianism is on the decline? That would be an interesting statistic.
As far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have meat in it, it is not a meal. I met a French girl a few months back and we were discussing food. I asked if she liked meat and her replay was "I would eat road kill if I could." Which is fair enough, my motto, if it's got a face, I'll eat it. Tonight’s gastronomic delight is pork in a cider sauce and shallots. The main highlight being, the meat.
Posted by kemuri on March 6, 2007 12:15 PM.

I didn't realise what this programme was about - assumed from the title that it was a chance for the public to take their long-overdue revenge on Ainsley Harriot. Gutted. Me, and the cow. Not Ainsley though. Shame.
Posted by Hfactor on March 6, 2007 12:23 PM.

As Peter Kay once said: "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?"
Posted by PatrickThistle on March 6, 2007 12:45 PM.

Like most Peter Kay quotes, I don't think he 'said' it, I think he 'repeated' it.
Posted by HighNoon on March 6, 2007 1:01 PM.

I tried really hard to actually watch the whole programme. As a vegetarian I was interested in seeing the programme and to see how the programme makers tackled the issues. I also wanted to subject my husband to the realities of the slaughtering process... I found it incredibly distressing - even more so than I had predicted - and had to leave the room in floods of tears. However, what was also upsetting, was that the programme didn't examine the other end of the scale - the Bernard Matthews 'meat factories', or the non-best practice abattoirs. If this is as humane as it gets, how terrifying. I was also concerned that the programme did not really touch on the 'Rear It' aspect of the process, or the environmental impact of raising cattle/animals for food, or the nutritional downsides to eating animals. I will try and stomach the lamb and pig episodes, but imagine I won't be able to watch them in full either. Still, if it turns at least one person off meat for life, or makes people actually explain to their children that the thing on their plate did once have a life and died a horrible death, then it might all be worth it.
Posted by SusanLM on March 6, 2007 1:11 PM.