Kill it Cook it Eat it

Anyone watching this on BBC3 last night?
some of the most disturbing TV I've ever witnessed for the following reasons

for those of you who didn't see it, the premise of the program is to follow hand reared animals from birth to fork.
Last night was milk fed young lambs. Basically they showed 26 Day old lambs being taken from their mothers to a studio where they were Slaughtered live on air. cooked and then consumed by the studio audience. not very distressing you may say, however I took exception at the following

A. these Lambs are way too young to be slaughtered

B. the electrical stunner in the studio wasn't working so they had to shoot a bolt into the heads of the lambs to "stun" them. The abattoir expert on the show said clearly that the bolt was designed to stun them, then........

C. The second Lamb that was brought to slaughter was clearly distressed when stunned and was trying to escape, the Expert then changed his story to say that the bolt actually kill's the lambs, and despite the fact that the lamb was running around the place, it was infact dead. :confused:

D. on consumption the vast majority of the studio audience agreed that they couldn't taste any discernible difference between the milk fed lambs and your common or garden spring lamb(usually slaughtered at between 12-14 weeksold)
and finally and most distressingly
E. the presenter then went around the studio audience like on the trisha show or that other early morning talk show on ITV cant remember the name, and the majority of them said they were not disturbed in any way by what they had witnessed

I was left wondering exactly what the show hoped to achieve/what the purpose was. the only conclusion that I could come up is that it's a particularly nasty reality cooking show

P.S. have Complained to the BBC via their website and will post their response here

I don't eat lamb;)

The first series was great viewing, watching the slaughtering/butchering process for pigs cows sheep etc. The kind of process that goes on every day, that we choose not to think about when buying our pork chops.
They seem to be just hamming it up a bit in this series by slaughtering suckling animals, trying to pull more on people's emotional strings.

I don't recall a lamb running around the place after the captive bolt gun, just a lot of twitching. I thought it was a joy to watch such a skilled slaughterer at work.

By the way, the electric stunner has worked all week. It didn't work first go last night, so the vet (who was always only feet away) made the call on the gun. Once the animal is brought in, it has to be killed as quickly and humanely as possible.

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Originally Posted by noby

By the way, the electric stunner has worked all week. It didn't work first go last night, so the vet (who was always only feet away) made the call on the gun. Once the animal is brought in, it has to be killed as quickly and humanely as possible.

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I understand why they used the gun, and the vet also mentioned that once an animal is brought into slaughter in the UK it legally can not be allowed to leave alive. the disturbing fact was that the vet initally said that the bolt would stun the animal and then maybe to placate the audience because they were shocked by the amount of twitching he changed his story to say that the animal was in fact dead not stunned.if this is true I find a bit strange that the twitching would stop as soon as the animals throat was slit

I saw a little but didnt like the show ( not the killing ) it was as you say Trisha the bucher episode. I was watching the show about the free range chickens the other night and got some abuse because they people in the house didnt want to watch "that kind of thing". I said this is humain killing of the meat you eat every day and chances are the chicken you are eating will have had a much more brutal death/life.

People are so far removed from the facts that the chop in plastic wrapping was once an animal . They showed the indoor battery raised chicken they have 17 chickens in a 1metre sq area sitting in there own waste.where there skin and meat gets soaked and burnt from the waste then people happily eat that :(

All my meat comes from local small farms and its raised outdoor rather than eating the rubbish supermarkets sell .

If you do not like then don't eat meat. I presume this is common everyday occurrence & probably a lot worse when no tv cameras.

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Originally Posted by anto1208

They showed the indoor battery raised chicken they have 17 chickens in a 1metre sq area sitting in there own waste.

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Did they condemn/condone this practice or did they just have the trishaesque "debate" with no conclusion?

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Originally Posted by pete

I presume this is common everyday occurrence & probably a lot worse when no tv cameras.

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It's not so much the practice's I have a problem with. more with BBC's need to show graphic images of the process in an entertainment /talk show scenario
with commentary of little value or conclusion. It was presented in a way that was meant to shock, they then asked the audience for their reaction in a kind of talk show/entertainment style. if this was a documentary style programme done in an actual abattoir I don't think I would have such issues with it.
The show is basically a cross between Trisha and Ready Steady Cook with a bit of pointless gratuitous voilence thrown in

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Originally Posted by pete

If you do not like then don't eat meat.

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I don't eat Lamb for two reasons. I dont like the Idea of killing young animals and I don't like lamb anyway

The guy with the mutton chops (oh the irony) did seem to get muddled up a bit. Every other night the electric stunner worked. In those cases the animal was stunned but still 'alive' until they were bled out.
With the gun they were dead. If you got a 4" bolt through your head you would be more than just stunned.

The 'twitching as soon as their throat was cut' was, going by other nights, coincidental. Some animals stopped twitching ever before they were cut, others went on for several minutes.

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Originally Posted by noby

The guy with the mutton chops (oh the irony) did seem to get muddled up a bit. Every other night the electric stunner worked. In those cases the animal was stunned but still 'alive' until they were bled out.
With the gun they were dead. If you got a 4" bolt through your head you would be more than just stunned.

The 'twitching as soon as their throat was cut' was, going by other nights, coincidental. Some animals stopped twitching ever before they were cut, others went on for several minutes.

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I understand the process and do realise that the bolt was designed to kill I just think that on the second lamb they got it badly wrong and the animal did not die instantly. it was clearly trying to run away as opposed to the other animal's who just spasmodically twitched

The format is a little crass. Although it should be pointed out that this sis a real abattoir, with a tv studio built around it.

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Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

I dont like the Idea of killing young animals

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Do you just confine this to lamb, or is this across the board? Genuine question. I mean, do you have issues with chicken, for example?

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Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

I understand the process and do realise that the bolt was designed to kill I just think that on the second lamb they got it badly wrong and the animal did not die instantly. it was clearly trying to run away as opposed to the other animal's who just spasmodically twitched

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If I recall, the second lamb was about to be shot when it started to try to make a run for it. I thought he drew the gun away until he had a firm hold of the lamb between his legs again, and then shot.

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Originally Posted by noby

The format is a little crass. Although it should be pointed out that this sis a real abattoir, with a tv studio built around it.




Do you just confine this to lamb, or is this across the board? Genuine question. I mean, do you have issues with chicken, for example?

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Didn't previously have an issue with chicken as I was ignorant to the fact that they are killed so young. probably wont stop me eating it though. i know this sounds ridiculous but birds are different to Lamb's,calves,piglets etc. so some reason I don't feel as abhorrent towards the killing of poultry

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a real abattoir, with a tv studio built around it.

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I didn't realize that. but still even so it's hardly your run of the mill abattoir situation

I must say, even though I've never tasted lamb so young, I tend to agree with the butcher in the audience last night. What's the point in slaughtering a 26day old, milk fed, lamb, when your normal lamb, at 12 weeks has had 10 weeks of suckling, has more weight, therefore higher yield, and tastes just as good?

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Originally Posted by noby

If I recall, the second lamb was about to be shot when it started to try to make a run for it. I thought he drew the gun away until he had a firm hold of the lamb between his legs again, and then shot.

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There was a bloddy stain on the lambs head, and blood streaking on the floor so I think while the guy was struggling with the lamb he may have fired the gun wounding it

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Originally Posted by noby

I must say, even though I've never tasted lamb so young, I tend to agree with the butcher in the audience last night. What's the point in slaughtering a 26day old, milk fed, lamb, when your normal lamb, at 12 weeks has had 10 weeks of suckling, has more weight, therefore higher yield, and tastes just as good?

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Was delighted that butcher raised this point, but he seemed to be shunned afterwards

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Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

Did they condemn/condone this practice or did they just have the trishaesque "debate" with no conclusion?

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It was a different show it was one of the celeb cooks Hugh something promoting free range chicken so he condemnd it at every chance. I was annoyed at the moronic general public. One guy complaining about how expensive the free range chickens are ( while sitting at the bar drinking pints :rolleyes:)

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Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

Was delighted that butcher raised this point, but he seemed to be shunned afterwards

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He was the one actually doing the butchering of the pig the other night, and made the same points, so I guess he had had his turn.

Throughout the week, the people who disagreed with the killing of an animal so young generally fell into two categories; not necessarily male/female, but close.

A lot of the farmers/butchers etc. had a very pragmatic view, and didn't see the economic value for such little taste difference.
A lot of other people (mainly women) took a more sentimental view, and didn't like to see a young animal being taken from their mother. I'm sure someone last night mentioned how she breastfed her own kids (children, not goats), and couldn't bear to see the lamb being taken from the mother.

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Originally Posted by noby

I'm sure someone last night mentioned how she breastfed her own kids (children, not goats), and couldn't bear to see the lamb being taken from the mother.

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Correct she did which I thought was a bit sentimental
I started this thread more to see what people thought of this thing being televised in general but particularly in this "entertaining" way