'Being Gordon Ramsay' featuring dead pig!

There used to be a bit of a fashion for taxidermy of dead pets.

Why shouldn’t meat be used as a centrepiece of a meal? It’s been that way in very many cultures for centuries.

What you see as entertainment, others see as celebration.

I find it much, much less disrespectful to display an animal in its' entirety than to reduce it to a bunch of plastic wrapped body parts on a supermarket shelf.

No wouldn't bother me. I know that meat comes from animals having to die. To not be comfortable with a dead cooked pig in front of me would make me a hypocrite. Have always loved going for hog roast events in restaurants. Normal for a meat eater.

Missing the point when I’m not suggesting a carcass can suffer. I’m talking about the attitude behind turning a dead body into entertainment. Something can be dead and still be treated in a way that feels disrespectful or gratuitous. We generally believe bodies deserve a basic level of dignity even after death. You rarely see a beloved poodle positioned as a table centrepiece with flowers in its eyes. It’s about what we consider acceptable to display. The performative element is callous, and frankly a bit tacky.

Exactly. To me, it seems much less grotesque to eat suckling pig than to only ever eat plastic wrapped bacon or chops from Tesco.

lol, okay? You can doubt it all you want, I guess.

It was a small, rural private school in the nineties. We had chickens, rabbits and various other school animals, and a black pig named Sage. Years 5/6 were allowed to feed the pig (it was considered a huge honour) and when she reached about 18 months of age she was taken off to be slaughtered, and served on bonfire night, alongside lots of other local foods.

Most farmed animals have unnaturally short lives as they are slaughtered at the point where their potential further growth does not justify the cost of keeping them. But the inflated prices GR charges could definitely absorb the cost of giving these animals a bit more of a life.

Id rather not have a plant based diet

Doubt it

But we celebrate a humans life at death with funerals.

Yes we don’t eat the humans but it’s to celebrate life. We celebrate what the human did. We celebrate what the animal gives us.

the whole spectacle of celebrating the animal’s death is what is grotesque.

Fair enough.

Why is it grotesque to celebrate the entire animal?

You don't have to care what I think of you. I haven't suggested you should. I just find it really sad that some people don't give a shit if animals are treated inhumanely in abbatoirs ( or elsewhere). I wouldn't expect people that think that way would care what anyone ( family, friend or stranger), think of them. Why would I??

Yes true. But I am thinking more like pets / domesticated animals. The animal welfare act does not address slaughter of very young animals but I do think this is a short coming.

I completely agree with you OP. It is the whole spectacle of a dead animal being paraded that is grotesque and primitive. I attended a wedding several years ago and a dead pig on a spike was in the front of the room. The vegetarians didn’t know where to hold their gaze.

How can you be sadistic and cruel to a carcass?
It's dead!

They wouldn’t be born in the first place if they weren’t going to be slaughtered for the table.

That's kind of my view as well. Surely it's better that we see, eat and celebrate the whole animal, not just the sanitised view of them?

A life is a life.

I'm a bit of a guilty meat eater. I know where it comes from, obviously, could never work on a farm and send the animals to slaughter myself. I eat duck but have pet ducks. Mine will never be eaten and live a long life until they die of old age. But I love the taste of it so try to detach it from my ducks.

I minimise my meat eating. Will probably chose 1-2 meat types a week and make it stretch for many meals. Eating vegetarian dishes many times a week too.

I wouldn't find the whole pig a desirable treat or an impressive display, would actually find it off putting . But I also accept i chose to take part in eating meat (not matter if minimal) so I have no right to be offended how others do it. I wouldn't complain if others at the same table ordered this, although I would pass. Also wouldn't ever order a live lobster, not something that appeals to me condemning a life to end by my choosing.

I think presenting it as a whole pig but “pretty” is actually more humanising of the animal than a mere chop or rib.

So more respectful of the animal.

I think you're being silly, OP.
I'm a dairy-free vegetarian (my own chickens' eggs are the only animal product I eat) but if someone is a meat eater then surely meat is meat, regardless of how it's presented? Any meat eater making a fuss is being ridiculous.
People serve whole turkeys, chickens, salmon etc. too!

You are clearly projecting your own point of view onto other people.

FYI we (whole family + two children) have invited a close friend family (also with two children) to accompany us to Segovia in Spain which is renowned for "cochinillo" (roast suckling young pig).

We've been before and one of the highlights; main reason for going in fact; is to enjoy the experience and taste!

The young pig is served whole and presented specially at the table.

Search for any combination of "cochinillo", Segovia, suckling pig, etc...

Delicious!

Nope wouldn’t bother me, I’ve been to a fair few events with a whole hog roast.

Really, what's the difference? I genuinely don't see it.

The pig is dead. It makes no difference whether it's presented as chops, bacon, a roast with stuffing or with an apple in its' mouth and flowers in its' eyes. It's the same animal and will taste the same regardless.

It's not "staging a performance" to display it in a certain way - or do you think all food should just be served to be as unidentifiable as possible?

The UK is so weird when it comes to meat.