We should show children the details of human reproduction as well, then, and how untreated cancer progresses. They need to know!

Child abuse masquerading as concern for animals.

Shock and horror are great ways to short-circuit the reasoning mind when you don't want to deal with it. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a 100 page example of this. Some kids will resent having been intellectually bludgeoned by the people who were supposed to be teaching them. Some will submit.

Next: explicit demonstration of where babies come from.

I knew a girl who, at the age of 13 or 14, was shocked to find out that the product called "chicken" in the supermarket actually had something to do with the animal called "chicken" running around the farmyard. Meat was just another food product that you bought in the supermarket, and it had simply never occured to her to wonder what it was made from.

Yes, one should know meat comes from dead animals. But one doesn't have to overdo it either. There is a happy medium...

On the other hand, rabbit meat tastes like pee...

I think we've become a bit too divorced from the realities of what we eat and how it's produced.

If you don't know how your meal has been prepared, and don't take the time to find out, then don't be surprised when food producers take advantage of your ignorance to sell you cheap, unhealthy crud masquerading as quality food.

I had to kill and pluck/skin chickens and rabbits during parts of my army training. I'd have no problems in exposing my kids to that - they might just appreciate the meat more, and leave less of it on the plate.

What's a lapin?

Ah, animal rights wackos and enviro-wackos.

Fuck them to death.

Peta is slaughtering animals by the score, and they feel nothing.

I'm starting to think that some of these nihilist groups don't just hate human life. I'm thinking some of them hate ALL life.

What must that be like?

I'm looking forward to vat-grown meat, myself. :) Yay, science!

I dont see the big deal, the kids in question were probably coddled and parents how hwd to
"protect their little angle" form the horrors of the world.

Any one else find it funny that a chef who wants kids to become vegitarians is willing to kill animals to do it? Way to stick to your princables douchebag.

My 13yr old (now 15) brother helped a neihbor and I string up a pig, gut, and skin it just before we threw it on the barbque.

He was fine with it

The first time I visited my family in Germany I got to meet Uncle Gustav's lopped eared rabbits. He had about 8 in a rabbit house. I patted them and wanted to see them every single day because they were so cute. I also felt really bad for Uncle Gustav because he lost his leg during the war and he limped around on a fake leg and he explained to me how sometimes he could still feel his leg, and sometimes it hurt like the day he had it cut off. Granted he was speaking German which was being translated by a cousin who spoke maybe 100 words in English. But I got the gist.

Then I found out he raised the rabbits so he could eat them.

I didn't feel bad for Gustav having phantom pains anymore.

Then I went down the path to visit the sheep, who were raised for their wool and that's where I left it. Inevitably I ate a shitload of salami and schinken for lunch that day. Oh well.

I don't think she was trying to turn kids vegetarian, she was responding to someone's questioning our knowing where our food comes from. I think it's important to know from whence comes your food. I buy most of our meat from a freerange rancher here. Yeah, the cow is slaughtered and probably doesn't really like that, but it lives a pretty great cow life prior. That's all animals can ask, IMO.

Not that I'd want to show my kids that in particular, but they've seen a cow milked, and know that meat is cow and bacon is pig.

Ask the people who use bloody images try to shock you out of meat-eating what they think of showing adult women what an abortion procedure actually accomplishes.

I don't see a problem with this. The chef didn't sound like she was trying to turn kids vegetarian: She was giving kids an honest lesson in where their food comes from -- a sight children on farms a hundred years ago (and today) likely saw all the time. I'd also like to see kids learn about how much work goes into harvesting vegetables and rice. It's too easy to become detached from our food supply.

P.S: thanks for linking to that site - I really like it!

What's a lapin?

French for rabbit.

Late to the party.

I've butchered chickens, rabbits. I've helped prep a deer for the butcher to take down to the right cuts. (Not enough experience to do it myself).

Kids have been involved in butchering animals from the dawn of time. That these kids see it now, or in the future, or never, it is a reality of not being a vegan.

My problem is not as much as scaring children with scenes of slaughter but why we want to shield them from it. When I was barely ten, I saw a cow slaughtered on TV. Yes I had nightmares about it once but I still eat beef today.

I think it's our duty to show kids the truth about this world. In this case, the very fact that steaks don't grow on threes already wrapped in celo and styrofoam packaging.

It's a fair point - city kids especially often have no idea where their food comes from. But there's a difference between education and prosyletizing (sp?), and everyone's ignorant to begin with.

I bet they don't know exactly how sewage is processed, either. Most people's interest stops at the flush.

What's a lapin?

French for rabbit.

Pierre Lapin -- Peter Rabbit.

Whoops -- Jim P. got there first.

Ever look at the "Joy of Cooking"?

Lots of info on how to clean a deer carcass etc.

I remember being awoken at four am to help my parents butcher a deer they had shot. The next year, I took down my first deer.
I didn't think it was a big deal then and I don't think it's a big deal now. I have a healthy respect for animals because of my parents.
I fully plan on allowing them to teach my daughter to hunt and butcher as well. I'd do it myself, but I'm not physically capable.
I don't see anything wrong with showing our children where their food comes from. Perhaps her methods where a bit off, but in the end, she was doing the right thing.

Ever look at the "Joy of Cooking"?

Lots of info on how to clean a deer carcass etc.

I've seen the joy of a microwave. The instructions are limited to "Power," "Time," and "Start."

It's one thing, Truth, if you're raised that way. Children were for centuries. This was exposing kids to slaughtering a bunny in their teen years as some act of moral superiority. My friend Sergeant Heather, who doesn't believe in god, lets her kids believe in Santa Claus for years (like me, she notes that there's more evidence for Santa -- see him in malls all the time -- than there is for god). She tells them not to tell anyone so they won't be teased by other kids. She also replaced her 4-year-old's dead goldfish with a new one (she froze it!) and did the same with the pet rat. "It's at the vet." She figures the world is nasty enough and they'll find out soon enough that it's hard and cold and nasty and that things die.

Amy I can not agree with your friend's approach to life, or more specifically kid raising. If you can't start out the facts of life with a dead goldfish at 4, there's something wrong. My 2 4 year olds have learned the important lessons of not running into the street from the unfortunate carcasses of squished animals. They feel bad for the animals, we extrapolate "what if that was you" and life goes on. Should their first death experience be when their mom dies? Disney movies are dark for a reason. Bad things happen but life goes on. Its an important lesson, one that doesn't work if your kids don't know bambi's mom dies.

These lessons are also more palatable for people with large families, they have less worry about who will care for them if mommy dies.

Ok, That wasn't right. You should never use moral superiority to teach. It just doesn't work. Your students end up resenting you and the lesson never sinks in. (Unless you're teaching sheeple, but that's a whole nother story.)
I have to agree w/ Momof3 about teaching the facts of life and death. It's better for the child in the long run. Our daughter has been around death from day one. We used to foster cats for rescue and some of them where so sick and abused, they just couldn't hang on. My husband and I used the death of a kitty to teach our daughter about life and death. @ five, she has a better grasp of it than some adults.
I'm not saying your friend is wrong. I don't know her or her kids. Some kids might not be able to handle frankness when it comes to things of that matter. I know some adults can't and there is nothing wrong w/ that. We each handle it in our own way.
Totally off topic- Some friends where asking about the diet book you always recommend. I can't for the life of me remember the title. Would you mind sharing again? Thanks.

I think more kids should know exactly where their food comes from, and frankly I'm getting pretty sick and tired of what seems to be the majority of today's parents trying to bubble wrap the world for their kids. Life is messy, and kids are resilient. If they have a parent or other adult there to explain to them what's happening, they shouldn't come away emotionally devastated from someone preparing dinner.

Ted Nugent has been mocked for years for his Kill It and Grill It cookbook. But he's right; he won't eat meat or feed his family if he hasn't taken himself.

I agree with James H. and Monica P. Our kids take food for granted, don't wonder where it comes from, assume it will always be there, and waste too much because of it. Even American kids in feeding programs; compare them to kids abroad in programs. Abroad, I've seen kids clean a chicken bone like my grandmother who grew up in the depression, cracking it open to get to marrow. Here, kids get mad it there's no juice box, bag of chips, and a packet of Chips Ahoy with their meal.

BF kills and butchers deer. Both of daughters have helped him with the skinning and butchering, and they're none the worse for wear. They also eat the venison, and know where chicken, beef and bacon come from. Keeping it real is keeping it truthful, folks. If they have friends over, and we're serving venison, they can eat it or they can wait until they go home to eat. Not a one of them has ever said no yet, and in fact, most have complimented the meal. I made lasagna with venison a couple of weeks ago. One young lad who ate with us said it was the best lasagna he ever ate. And he made sure to tell me he wasn't saying that just to be polite!

Kids at the age mentioned in the article should have already observed or participated in a biology class dissection by then. It's one of the best environments to see that sort of thing, shy of tagging along with a farmer handling his work.

I think by that age I'd already seen a cow's head and a frog. Then again I'd already caught and cleaned/gutted fish, helped process the meat, hide and head from a couple deer (and I don't hunt), and other stuff.

It's good to know where your food comes from, and have it presented in a non-judgmental manner. The better people understand the processes involved, both in local and corporate food processing, the better choices they can make.

I'd like to hope a better educated population might help to prevent shitty conditions like those that were responsible for the peanut/salmonella episode (bird poo in the peanut butter? Ack). That might be wishful thinking.

>> My meat loving ass.

>> Inevitably I ate a shitload of salami...

Words to wake up by!

I'd like to hope a better educated population might help to prevent shitty conditions like those that were responsible for the peanut/salmonella episode (bird poo in the peanut butter? Ack). That might be wishful thinking.

This morning on the news it was pistachio nuts, dammit. I love pistachio nuts!

o.O

A bit too graphic and her intent seems less than honorable. It doesn't seem it was to teach kids where food comes from as much as it was to shock them into not eating meat. And there was no reason really for not warning them. You can teach them that food comes from this animal or that without something this graphic.

And for the record, my uncles were farmers. I've spent the summer. Yes, they were dairy farmers but when the milk runs dry and often calves are sold for meat. No, we never saw the slaughter. The cows sold for meat (including the calf I saw birthed that summer) were picked up by the butcher. Of course, maybe I never saw the process because they were dairy farmers.

I think we can appreciate where our meat comes from without having to be subject to the grostesque details. There is something between not having a clue and a graphic demonstration. My grandson has some understanding that we kill fishies for the fish he loves (and piggies for pork, and chickens for chicken, etc.). We play Sims Castaways and appall his mother because we both hunt the wild boar and turn it into a ham. LOL! You have to grab the spear and then there's a cloud of dust hiding the fighting and, if you win the fight, there's a nice ham lying on the ground.

To say we need more knowledge than that is just plain silly. Most of us will never have to kill our own meat. I love meat but, honestly, if I had to butcher it myself, it wouldn't happen. Well, not unless I was starving.

I note that a bunny was chosen to make the process more traumatic. Her education claims appear mere fig leaf. This is activism, not education. An ugly hog would cause less upset, hence its absence.

Having shot, dressed and eaten deer, I can attest that obtaining meat is a messing process. Still like it, though.

The earlier point about showing grown women abortion pictures was a point well made. Kudos.

There is a difference between shock value and edumacation... you can bring kids along slowly to show them with ideas where food comes from, and then how to cook it, and then, if they are interested, the butchering... like steps. If the chef did it because of the "climate" well that's just horse hockey. If she is that concerned with that she should be eating wild tubers with no prep. The very act of being a chef and cooking food puts a lot of carbon in the atmo. Where is the personal responsibility there?

Not that I don't believe that being a chef is good... Human existence is a trade-off... knowing what is in the trade is important. But there are good ways and bad ways to do that.

Educating children on the facts of life & death, and in particular where their food comes from is a good thing, but it ought to be done gradually.

I have a photo of my one-year old poking at the carcass of the deer that I shot last Fall, and by next year she ought to be able to help do a little cutting.

But having said that, I think that suddenly & abruptly exposing sheltered pre-adolescents to the full realities of butchering a (pet??) rabbit is inexcusably abusive.

I've always been a fan of the idea if that you have a problem with animals being slaughtered, maybe you shouldn't be eating meat. I personally don't care. I've seen animals slaughtered, butchered. It doesn't really bother me, but I still eat Ilots of vegetables.

That said, this was clearly propaganda. Shock and awe plain and simple. Kids should be made to know there is a link between what they eat and the barnyard animals they're taught about, but no need to slaughter in front of the kiddies.

You'll notice, they all still ate it. Not particularly traumatized. Come on people, I'm usually the one mocked for my "think of the children!" stance, but even I think this is ridiculous!

"The earlier point about showing grown women abortion pictures was a point well made. Kudos."

Well, why not show them? Might result in fewer episodes like the baby tossed in the trash to bleed to death, which traumatized the mother because she didn't expect to see a "baby". My 4 year old had her tonsils out. She saw pictures first. Knowledge is never bad. In fact it should be required. Then fewer people could file stupid lawsuits later because of their ignorance.

By the age of these kids, I had seen chickens running without their freshly lopped heads, a sheep shot through the back of the head and then dressed, an elderly horse euthanized with a shot through the forehead, etc. Death is part of life, and we manage both for the creatures who are our food -- and our pets.

Not knowing, and thus not being able to appreciate, where and how you get meat to eat is a disservice to kids.

What dogma! Why do all vegetarians have to be self-righteous, tofu-eating, card-carrying peta members? Why does it matter to you what someone else wants to eat?
I don't eat meat because I don't like the taste and all I get are snide comments. I don't like the taste of cauliflower either but nobody hassles me about that. I don't consider myself a vegetarian any more than I would consider myself an anti-cauliflower-etarian. Its stupid to define oneself so ornately.
I had a friend with hemachromatosis who had to restrict iron from his diet (more meat meant more blood letting sessions) and you would not believe the flak he got: rolling eyes, defensiveness, derision, insinuations about his masculinity.
You can point to an annoying holier-than-thou vegetarian, but most folks just aren't like that. Funny how an article about a woman butchering a rabbit devolved into vegetarian bashing, even though it seems the woman herself was not vegetarian, just a realist.

Anna -

Let me tell you why this happened.

PeTA.

Their militant anti-meat campaigns have made it so that the common consciousness about vegetarians is that they are all self-righteous political poseurs.

So those who don't eat meat for any other reason are now painted with the "Oh, so you think you're better than me because you're so fucking enlightened, huh?" brush.

Oh and anyone who believes that eating meat harms the climate is probably not terribly well acquainted with reality.

Just sayin'

Bullshit:
"What dogma! Why do all vegetarians have to be self-righteous, tofu-eating, card-carrying peta members?"
(emphasis mine)

To which I reply:
"Why do all people who aren't vegetarians say stupid gross generalizations like this?" /sarcasm

Nearly every vegetarian I personally associate with isn't like this. This is because many of them aren't, and when I find those that are, I don't associate with them. One of my close friends has been a vegetarian for around 30 years, and she cooks the best beef roast I've ever had. She just doesn't like to eat the stuff. Obviously no axe to grind in her case.

Don't see any reason to label them based on a few - especially when the choice to eat sprouts doesn't have an inherent requirement to behead me over eating a hot dog.

Just about every "cause" has its over-zealous morons. For every Crusading Bunny-Butcher, Tree-Spiker, Jesus-Camper, and Abortion-Clinic-Bomber there's numerous vegetarians, environmentalists, Christians, and pro-lifers that behave themselves and act ethically and rationally.

Are all football fans fat, ugly, drunken, body-painted idiots?

Anne K.

My apologies. For what it's worth I was so irritated by the first paragraph that I honestly glossed over the rest. If I had paid better attention to the rest (I did later) I might have reacted a little better.

That being said, broad brushes irritate me in general and results in knee-jerk reactions.

Seriously. Don't get all pissy with those who do eat meat cuz some assholes give you grief that you don't eat a slab of bacon - and I won't get pissy with those who eat their tofu (I actually like tofu) in peace and leave me be when I scarf down sushi.

I doubt a celebrity chef is trying to convert kids to veganism. Just sayin'.

are these the same kids who have the Hannibal Lecter posters?

You know, the article doesn't say... were the kids and/or their parents warned she'd be doing this before-hand or did she just up and slaughter this rabbit before their eyes without warning?

Because it makes a difference. If they knew that it was going to be done, that would indicate that it was indeed a part of the education of the show and any child or child's guardian who objected could have kept said child out of it. Reading it over again, seems the kids were giving their reaction to what they saw and it could be their reaction either way but they ate the rabbit and did not seem overly traumatized or stunned the way they would have been if they were not expecting it.

Thinking it over, it makes no sense to just shockingly do this as a protest or whatever. Not that the things the PETA-types do makes sense.

I do have to say though, given the antics of PETA, I actually bought this one when it was announced on the radio until I remembered what the date was. :/

NPR PETA Announcement

Killing the rabbit is a German tradition immortalized in this Wagner/Warner opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwDo_hTs2Q

Kill the waaabbbitt!

Gog: Been there, done that.