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