Remember last May, when everyone got all mad about these photos?

Dear the Stranger,

Why do you assume that Seattle wants to look at someone stabbing the face off of a pig?

I am fully aware that pigs (with their attending faces) are where meat comes from. This is why I choose not to eat other animals. It isn't easy a lot of the time, and I'm not one of those sanctimonious assholes who pretends that enlightenment (or whatevs) comes naturally to me. I miss bacon, sure. The hardest part, though, isn't eating hummus when everyone else is eating short ribs. The hardest part is watching other people pretend that it's funny, how things die for the pleasure of their palette...

So this picture of a pig's face with is jowls laid open, it's not pleasant. It's not nice. It's supposed to be "real" and "honest" because somehow people have it in their minds that looking in the eyes of an animal before killing it so they can have a nice snack is somehow more thoughtful than buying their meat from a package.

But it's not. It's just another way to avoid really looking. You look at that pig-face and you see a way to be "green", to go against the system get your food "responsibly". But you don't see a pig. You still see a snack.

Posted by TMK on May 29, 2010

Killing animals for food makes animals objects for human use, just as rape (or slavery for that matter) makes humans objects for use. It denies an animal's interest in living his/her life and ranks our culinary preference above another being's interest in not being killed...

Posted by kag on May 30, 2010

Well, the event that spawned the controversy—Cochon 555, which ended in fisticuffs in its Portland version last year—is back.

It's this Sunday—with Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Ethan Stowell (Tavolata, etc.), Jason Stratton (Spinasse), John Sundstrom (Lark), and Rachel Yang (Joule/Revel) competing—if you want to go (or picket!).