Fuck you Frontier House, fuck you with a chainsaw!

The BBQ Pit
#1

Damn frontier house, what the fuck is this. Ok, so the families are in Montana, living as 19th century homesteaders, its an alright show, it seems to aim for historical experimentation. So, one week from the end of the show (more or less), one family decides to kill their pet pig to eat at the end banquet. So, despite the fact that its a fucking game, they decide to kill the pig, and cut it up for one meal. So what do they do? They go between the following shots:

Small child crying begging for pigs life

Stupid bitch mother telling him that they need to kill the pig “because it’s right”

Pig laying peacefully in mud, oblivious to his impending doom

The dad then takes a gun and shoots the pig dead, on TV

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, A FUCKING SNUFF FLICK?

People get arrested for making videos of them killing animals. How the hell is this any different?

#2

Lemme see if I can help you here…

Poaching wild animals to eat or not=illegal.

Killing a pet pig to eat=not illegal.

I don’t see the problem here, except for being on TV.

Sam

#3

Maybe because it was a relatively quick, relatively humane death, and it was killed to be eaten.

I didn’t see it, did the pig die quickly?

#4

So what should we do, throw Frank Purdue in prison now?

How else are you going to eat a pig, if you don’t kill it?
I’m really not trying to sound callous, but them’s the facts of homesteading. You can’t run out for a Happy Meal. You gotta do what you gotta do.

#5

To clarify, my problem is more the fact that they kill the pig on TV, just for show. Something about that seems profoundly sick.

#6

I think I’m goint to be sick.

IT IS ONLY A FUCKING TV SHOW!!!

I’ve never seen this show, but I’m sure they could find something better to eat.
Ugggg I hate animal cruelty.

#7

Animal cruelty?

Get a fucking clue moron. What they did was kill an animal for food. It was done quickly, humanely, and most importantly, for a real, legimate reason.

Where the hell do you think meat comes from, anways? The store? It comes from real live animals that were killed so you, me, and others, can eat and survive.

Just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen- animals die so that others can survive. Sticking your head in the sand isn’t going to stop it either.

#8

So if they’d killed the pig off-camera it would’ve been fine?

The whole point is that the people were supposed to go into it with the mindset that it is NOT ONLY A FUCKING TV SHOW. If you’re “playing a game” you’ve missed the entire point. This is living history, trying to realize what it was like for our ancestors not so very long ago.

Apparently some of us are whooshed by that concept, as well as the concept that People Who Eat Meat Have To Kill Animals At Some Point, as well as the concept that A Hundred Years Ago You Had To Kill Your Own Meat Because You Couldn’t Buy Fresh Pork Chops At The Non-Existent Supermarket.

#9

Oh My GaWd, Hosayf, shut the fuck up!

You’ll need to define “Animal Cruelty” to even go anywhere with a statement like that. Is killing an animal for food “Animal Cruelty”? If so, I hope you’re a vegan.

FWIW, I certainly wouldn’t call a well placed projectile from the muzzle from a gun “Animal Curelty” Stop whining.

Sam

#10

Killing the pig - fine.

Eating the pig - fine.

Doing it all on TV while playing up on the emotions of the little kid that are probably different than those of a real “Frontier” child to get ratings - pretty creepy if you ask me.

I dunno - if they’re gonna eat the pig, great, but it sounds like they made as much of a spectacle out of it as they could. Blech.

#11

What??? No crying over the snake??

Oh, you don’t like snakes so it’s ok.

#12

Did 19th-century homesteaders actually SHOOT their livestock? If I remember my Little House books correctly, that’s not how livestock were killed.

Was the pig a pet before the show? And would anyone like to hear my hilarious-in-retrospect story about the “pet” goose someone gave my family a month before Christmas when I was 5?

#13

Uh, you may not want to know this, but in my experience with butchering hogs, we didn’t shoot them in the head… we slit their throat and saved the blood to make sausage. We also kept the brain (good with scrambled eggs), intestines (sausage casing), fat (rendered down for lard), et cetera and ad nausem. Very little of any critter I’ve ever helped butcher was wasted.

I doubt that many children these days understand exactly where and how their food really comes from, unless they’ve grown up on a traditional farm. Must have been one heck of a shock for that poor kid on the Frontier House program.

#14

I was pretty alarmed by that part as well, but that’s just my own squeamishness.

And allow me to clarify what comradegonzo has misstated: the pig was NOT killed on-camera. Pert near, since we saw before and after and heard the shot, but the actual moment of killing was not visible.

#15

You all sound like the kid now! Whining about killing the Poor pig
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Pass me a plate Mr. Glenn, you dun good

#16

I was pleasantly suprised that they showed the slaughtering of the pig. I was afraid they would white wash the whole experience.

All it did for me was give me a craving for a pig roast.

#17

I found it interesting comparing this scene to the pig-slaughtering scene in Big House In the Little Woods (I’m reading it to my kids now). In the book, the slaughtering day was a happy one. Even though the girls had the pig all summer, there wasn’t a tear shed when it was gone (although Laura did not like to hear the pig squealing).

The concept of a pet is something that, I believe, has evolved over the past hundred plus years. People back on the homestead would not have formed any real attachments to any animals (except maybe a dog), because they were always aware that the animals (including dogs) were not pets, but working parts of the home. Part of that work included providing food, whether it be from eggs, milk or meat. Laura Ingalls knew that all along, both emotionally and intellectually. The Glenn kid, knew it intellectually, but could not, due to his being a 21[sup]st[/sup] century kid, grasp the fact emotionally.

I was upset not at the pig being slaughtered, but at the emotion turbulence that the kids were put through when the animals had to be slaughtered. I don’t know if it was possible, but it would have been better not to allow the kids to form emotional attachments to the animals to begin with.

Zev Steinhardt

#18

So who are you blaming here? The decision to kill the pig was made by the parents. Even if it hadn’t been shown on camera, they still would have killed it. So what’s the difference whether it was shown on TV or not? The pig doesn’t care, so why do you?

#19

Actually, I think the show skipped the one thing that settlers would have done that we would have had a great deal more trouble accepting. The one dog had a litter of puppies right before they left, and I am pretty sure that real settlers would have drowned them more or less automatically: the food it takes to support six dogs can’t possibly have been justified by any service the dogs provided. In fact, I was confused by having the dogs at all: the animal handler wwent on and on about how useful they would be as watch dogs, but I don’t know what they were watching against. But I missed the last two hours. Perhaps the dogs justified themselves later.

#20

[slight HJ]
Scene: Holiday season 1997(8?)
MotherDelirious makes huge batch o’food, sends JRDelirious over to SisterDelirious’ home with some.

At that home, Nephew #2, then about 8-ish.
SisterDelirous asks her offspring: “Grandmother sent some food over: do you want to have some now?”
Nephew: “What is it”
JRDelirious: “Rice, with some meat in it”
N: “What kind of meat?”
JRD, feeling Cecilian at that time: “Animal meat, I should say”
N: “ANIMAL??”
…
N: “What are you guys laughing about?”

[/slight HJ]