The Guardian writer, a squirrel and a TV cookery show of questionable taste
NEWSNIGHT has been criticised after it allowed the Guardian columnist George Monbiot to skin, roast and eat a squirrel live on air.
Mr Monbiot, who is known for his environmental and political activism, wrote an article this week in which he told how he had cooked and eaten a squirrel after finding it dead, but still warm, at the roadside in Somerset.
In response to the “howls of outrage” about the column, and what he calls our “increasingly confused” realities of meat production, Mr Monbiot appeared on the BBC Two programme on Thursday night wearing an apron and brandishing a hatchet.
The 52-year-old cut up a squirrel before marinating it in lemon juice, cooking it and putting it on a plate for the presenter James O’Brien.
Viewers expressed their disgust on social media after the programme was broadcast, claiming the segment was “vile” and “disgusting”. However, the animal welfare organisation Peta said Mr Monbiot “has a point” when it comes to eating animals, roadkill or otherwise.
Mr Monbiot said: “We have become so far removed from the realities of meat production that anything which reminds us of where it comes from and how it is processed – let alone reared – is disturbing and dissonant.
“So it should be, given the realities of factory farming and slaughterhouses. But it seems to me that some people have confused what is customary with what is ethical.”
Standing at a kitchen table in the programme’s studio, Mr Monbiot explained how he would butcher the squirrel, slicing through the tail bone then cutting a little along each leg. He added: “There are millions of squirrels, rabbits, pigeons, deer killed every year – and a lot of them are landfilled. It doesn’t have to be the case. It’s not very nice, but meat production isn’t.”
The journalist then moved on to “one that we prepared earlier”, with most of the skin already taken off, and said: “All that’s now required is to remove the bits.” When one of the squirrels was fully cooked and prepared, Mr Monbiot offered it to Mr O’Brien, who took a bite and said: “It’s perfectly edible.” Mr Monbiot added that when it came to roadkill, he would eat anything apart from cats and dogs, “mostly because the owners would get upset”.
“There are cultural barriers which even rather feral people like me feel the need to respect,” he said. Shortly after the programme, News
night’s deputy editor, Neil Breakwell, wrote on Twitter: “I better set the morning aside for answering complaints.”
The Food Standards Agency said it did not support the eating of roadkill. A spokesman said: “These animals may not have been healthy when killed and may have been suffering from disease or environmental contamination.”
Elisa Allen, the associate director for Peta UK, said: “Monbiot has a point – if you must consume animal carcases, the only ethical way to do it is to scrape it off the road.”