I was more pissed at the parents for allowing the kids to get emotionally attached to the animals than anything else. They purchased the chickens and the pigs for food; they knew at some point, they would be killing them. In both cases, they allowed the little boy to not only get attached to the animals, but to NAME them. I certainly understand why the boy was upset, hell, Mr. Athena and I were joking that it would be like deciding our very spoiled pet dog was going to be Sunday dinner.
If I were those parents, I would have made DAMN SURE that kid knew from the very beginning the animals were FOOD. I would have not allowed the kids to name any of them, and I would have made numerous comments about “boy, that pig’s looking fat. Look here, boy, this part of the pig is where ham comes from.” and “That there stinky chicken better start laying, or into the pot it goes! Aren’t you hungry for fried chicken? Boy, I sure am!” and stuff like that. It wouldn’t have been “look at cute lil’ Annabelle the chicken! Doesn’t she have soft feathers? Oh, she’s so funny when she waddles. Come here, Annabelle! Good chicken! Let me pet you.” etc. etc.
I’m one day behind on the shows so I haven’t seen the pig get it yet, but I did for sure see the mother of the family in the animal corral telling the kids that this new pig they had just purchased was destined to end up in their stomachs.
So you can say she didn’t do an adequate job of getting that message across, but you can’t accuse her of doing nothing.
(Not to say that the Glenn’s weren’t a messed up family to begin with.)
I have a suspicion that—kids being kids—even back in 1883, they got attached to their “pets” sometimes and cried when they had to be killed. Especially as they’d have so few human friends on the prairie. They probably got more jaded about it as they aged, but I’m pretty sure “killing the pet” was a terrible rite of passage for most 19th-century kids.
It happens now, too. My grandparents used to be dairy farmers (obviously not a lot of romanticism there). One time, there was one cow who was past her prime, and they were going to have her butchered. They used to joke that my uncle was “practically feeding her barbeque sauce” in anticipation of the lovely steaks he would soon be eating. Well, maybe not too lovely, she wasn’t bred for meat. But when the big day came, she nuzzled his chest and he turned softie. IIRC, they kept her on as a “pet.”
we (wife and me) have a little “ranch”. i had a hard time (at first) eating the eggs from the chickens, fer christ sake! i would really freak if i had to butcher and eat one of our “guests”!
(don’t sweat it folks! they are all bred and raised as pets! see photos by clicking the little www thingy below on the wife’s website)
I just watched the same episode as emulsified. The mother most certainly was explaining to both kids that they were DEFINATELY going to have to kill their new pig for food when fall came. She told them rather reluctantly that they could name it if they wanted but she was trying to drive home the message that the pig was food.
I’m surprised the boy was hardest hit. The Glenn girl seems to have a thing for animals, and at least in the episodes I’ve seen so far seems to be doing many of the animal related chores.
Raising animals for food was definately a part of life in the 19th century, and it is STILL a part of life for many children that grow up on farms. It’s not easy, but it’s not done to be cruel either to the animal in question or to the children. If people eat meat, animals die. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t make this less of a cause and effect statement.
As a side note, in an earlier episode the protein obsessed clunes decapitated a chicken with a hatchet for their dinner. (not shown directly, more of before and after shots…you saw the hatchet swing, but you didn’t see it hit the chicken. For the people who had a problem with the pig, did you not see the chicken episode,
or do you just have more of a problem with bigger animals?
The final episode was also my first, though I did get updates from my wife and the Cafe Society thread. I didn’t have a problem with the pig scene because it seemed consistent with the spirit of the program and was not done in an overwrought or exploitative way (lingering shots of the carcass, hackneyed dramatic underscore, slow motion, etc.). I was impressed that the father said he would shoot it himself–he didn’t seem like a guy who savored the opportunity (unlike the other father–Clune?–who seemed to have something to prove all the time), and he did have an “out” with the butcher there. I agree it probably wasn’t wise to name the pig (especially not “Jo-jo Pumpkin”; how about “Stinky McPoopface” instead?), but if kids want to name something, how easy is it to stop them? When you’re busting your hump from dawn to dusk, I’m sure you’ve got other things on your mind. I believe they did reinforce the idea of animals=food, but kids are kids. I also thought it was touching with the girl and her horse; was the boy responsible for feeding & taking care of the pig? Maybe having an investment in the animal made it easier for the parents to motivate him with rather thankless chores.
What shocked me the most was that rich couple’s house–Holy Smokes! Who the frick needs a place that big? The alienated girls in the hot tub made for some nice irony; wonder how long that will last.
GaWd, now that I look at the post I made earlier, I realize that that was a knee-jerk reaction and a damn stupid one on my part. That was also extremely poor word choice, hell I’ll be honest that was downright stupid of me to say that, and for that I apologize. Maybe I just have animal cruelty on the brain fromthis thread. I don’t consider this sort of thing to be animal cruelty, and I’m glad that they killed it in a humane manner. It just pissed me off that they would kill the pig in front of a kid that, according to the OP’s description, considers it to be a pet. I agree with alice_in_wonderland on the emotion thing. That’s what the comment about being sick is because I find that to be really odd. Please accept my humble apology for not thinking before I post, and thank you for pointing my idiocy out to me.
Um, my meat comes from the supermarket, wrapped up all nice and neat, ready to cook. It grows on meat farms, where they plant pork chop seeds and chicken seeds and grow delicious chops and wings and such. Mmmmm. I hope one day to visit the Nathans Hotdog farm, as they’re my fav.
I am bummed that I missed this series and I hope they rerun it. I posted in my LJ a few months ago that Allan and I are very seriously considering living frontier style for a year in the mountains. I have no problem killing/cleaning my food (nor does he) and we both grew up very rural. As it is, we haven’t had TV in a year and a half, so neither of us cares about that at all. I can sew (even with a footpedal machine), cook, etc without electricity, and he can split wood and do the physical labor.
I hope they rerun the series so we can get some ideas of what obsticles we’ll face. One that we’ll avoid is the “kids attached to the food” issue, as we don’t have kids. If we get attached to the animals, I guess we’ll be eating a lot of twigs and berries.
I hate reality shows. I loved FH. I kinda winced when they were taking out the chickens (didn’t see the hog) but I realize it was part of their survival. The childless couple seemed to be having all the fun.
And the Clunes leaving to get food from the outside? WTF? Make a bow and shoot a deer dammit.
Your profile says you are in New York, but doesn’t say where. If you are in/near NYC (and can get WNET/13), it will be rerun on Saturday at 3:00pm and Sunday at 10:00pm. Both times the series will be shown straight through (all six hours).
I think the chicken and the snakes (and im sure there are others) might be easier to justify, since the participants did need food. The pig was killed less to provide needed food, but for the fair at the end of the show. They had food, but killed the pig as a luxery, knowing that the pig didn’t need to die for their survival, even within the context of the show.
I think it was killed as part of the game, I mean… historical simulation, killed to make a TV show seem more realistic. Perhaps I’m an extremist for having a problem with killing animals to make a TV show seem more realistic, but I think I’m right.
Anyone else notice that the only black/african-american guy and his dad (and eventually his white bride) were given the only house that had to be built from scratch.
I fully expected to see Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton there protesting.
