I am having a problem with accepting newborn animals, in particular piglets, being offered on the menu of a well known sydney restaurant.

Is it just me? I am certainly not naive about how our food gets to the table, but there is something just not right about serving up a newborn piglet!

I have approached the said restaurant and their response was 'what difference does the animals age make?' For me it does make a difference. There are so many reasons why; the welfare of the mother for one, having her young taken away so prematurely is just cruel.
Even if you put aside emotive issues, how can there possibly be any flavour in an animal that has not lived!

This dish is very expensive and I believe this new trend (in Australia anyway) amounts to nothing more than fetish feeding for a group of people so far removed from their food source that they probably dont even make the connection between what they are eating and the fact that it is a real tiny newborn animal.

Any input that can help me get my head around this would be appreciated.

I would not eat it.
Not for any other reason than I agree it seems a fad and a strange one surely not based on taste?
But in some parts of the world even insects are served up.
I think the eating history of mankind from our days in the caves may have seen much worse being consumed.
And if they thought it fashionable some would eat anything.
I understand your issues being a producer of pork and must say I would rather eat well grown meat.

Sorry, but I don't see what the fuss is, so long as the animal is treated humanely for its short life. Suckling pig is a traditional festive dish common to many cultures - in ours it goes back at least to the Romans {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suckling_pig). I can recall one time many years ago when my mother cooked one for Christmas dinner, and it was delicious.

If you're going to kill animals for food, I really can't see that the age at which you kill them is particularly relevant. I mean, what about eggs?

You think piglet is bad?

try this.

http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=balut&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

u'll never eat an egg again :)

It is nothing new.

You cannot make the choices for others, but can choose for yourself.

I personally prefer meat with more flavour.

Sorry, I'm with CJ Morgan on this. Just because you can't get YOUR head around something doesn't mean every body has to stop doing that thing.

Are you telling people what to think & eat?

When I was young, we ate: Chook feet, Chook Gizzards/livers, Cow Brains & Brain knobs, Tripe, Sweet bread (that's Pancrease to you), Ox tounge, Cheeks, Ox tail, Kidneys, Liver, Unborn calf, Sausages, (the skins made from sheep & Pig intestines), Soup made from fish leftover heads & backbones. Even Shark once, Roasted Bull Balls. I could go on but you have more than likely thrown up by now....;-) good.

Growing up where & when all that fare was quite natural

Jayb, I dont have a problem at all with making the most of an entire animal that has been slaughtered, I support it. The list you rattled off is nothing more than that. I am expressing my view that I have difficulty with the idea of eating newborn animals, not telling anyone not to do it, simply asking for other points of view, not agro.

I am not some bleeding heart out of touch with the realities of our food chain.

There is more to my concern than an animal not given more than a few days to live. In the case of pigs, when a sow is weaned she will cycle soon after (no matter what age the piglets) and no doubt an owner that is involved in such a trade would not hesitate to put that animal back to the boar in an attempt to maximize litters per year. Trouble is she would not have recovered yet from giving birth. She will probably end up with fertility problems and as a result be culled at an early age. Then there is the issue of handling these animals at the abattoirs. Too much thought put into for you Jayb I suppose?

I have had the chance to work in many different places including meat plants .It is not as cruel as you think to serve a new born piglet as many asian's eat new born animals for the tenderness of the meat.What i find different is that the asian community buy pigs blood in large amounts.David

Hello PF
Interesting thread.

I have had to think about this. I suppose its where the pigs grow up.

Now on your farm I get its ok but if it saves them having their teeth pulled tails docked and being squashed in behind bars in intensive farms - the quicker the better.

Anytime saved in those hell holes like we saw owned by Amadna Vanstone is a act of kindness.

If only all farmers grew their pigs like your free range.

If only all members of the public saw these intelligent creatures left locked between bars where they cant not even turn around.

Biting into the bars screaming because of the mental cruelty they wouldnt eat meat and Kevin Rudd needs to STOP intensive farms NOW of birds pigs feedlots.

I hear you about the mother but again if its in an intensive farm situation and it lessons the time behind those cruel bars maybe its for the better.

*What I find different is that the asian community buy pigs blood in large amounts.David
Posted by mattermotor, Saturday, 8 November 2008 6:03:13 PM*

matterworld what asians are you speaking of?
Certainly not Muslims.

Coincidentally, my partner and I were looking yesterday to purchase some ducklings, since our previous ducks were decimated last autumn by a feral cat. We want to buy them young, so it's easier to train them to come in at night. However, one delightful old dear to whom we were referred told us that she doesn't sell her ducks until they're full grown, so that they "can have some time in the sun".

We later realised that she thought we wanted to buy them to kill before they had matured, and when we explained that we want them as pets to live free-range in the garden, happily scoffing bugs and grubs, her attitude to us suddenly became much warmer.

My partner's vegetarian - with a particular fondness for her pet ducks - so you can imagine how appalled she was at the possibility that she might kill, dress and eat a young duckling! But I guess some people do.

PF,
I have heard of suckling pig, but not newborn. All animals used in restaurants has to be killed in a licenced abattoirs and I was not aware there were abattoirs that handled newborn piglets. Most dairy bull calve are slaughtered within a week of birth for the white veal.

You would be right, the newborn piglet would be a fetish and I could not see a large demand. I suspect a bit like veal, the flavour is simply the herbs, spices and sauce that the meal is served with.

Some people prefer Hoggett to Lamb because it has more flavour.

Things change. Years ago in England, it was against the law to kill a bull unless it had been baited i.e. Tied up and tormented by dogs. When the old sailing ships had dolphins riding on the bow wave, the crew would gaff them and used to suppliment their diet. Today you would be tossed overboard for suggesting it.

During the last Olympics, I read a newspaper article about a journalist having a meal of 6-8 different animal penises over there. I wouldn't order that or a dog meat dish either. Anyone who has ever skinned a fox would never eat dog.