Friday, July 11, 2008

Baytril Recipes

Are you like us? When you need a recipe fast, do you turn to the manufacturers of livestock antibiotics?

Small wonder that Baytril—makers of "The Effective Anti-Infective"—would have a particular view of animals. After all, they serve the livestock industry, where "food" animals will never be accorded the same autonomy as wild animals.

But this is ridiculous.

The cow leans back on the countertop, the better to accommodate the chef and his pepper habit. And look at the expression on Bossie's face. She is not put out, nor frightened.

She is relaxed as can be. It's as though we walked in on an intimate moment, the soon-to-be-butchered-and-cooked animal and the man who will transform her from being to matter. Man? Did we say "man"? Better we should say "wizard"!


And then there's this, the illustration accompanying a recipe for beef spring rolls (right).

Are we alarmists for seeing a hint—just a hint—of racism in this Vietnamese cow?

Regardless, the way she wraps herself up in rice paper or pancake (or whatever), an uncomfortable approximation of "come hither" in her eyes, gives us pause.






Addendum: These are not the first "hilarious" cartoons from the good people at Baytril to be featured here. Take a look at the Christmas ham!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you missed a point of symbolism here. Look at the pose. The smiles. The shape of the pepper grinder. Have we intruded upon a recipe in the making, or...
Yep, SOMETHING'S cooking in this kitchen.
It was my first impression upon seeing this image. I am a carnivore, I admit, but this picture was creepy.
Broccoli sounds real good for tonight!

Anonymous said...

Humans aren't carnivores, anonymous, by any definition of the word. We are omnivores, which means that we consume both flesh and non-flesh, which means further that we don't need flesh to live healthily given that we can easily replace the flesh with non-flesh.

Aside from that, you make a very interesting point.

Anonymous said...

Why so much perverted sexual imagery from the meat sector? Do omnivores actually get turned on by ths stuff? Or perhaps livestock industry folks wanted to "work around" animals for a, uh, deeper reason?

Nina said...

racism and speciesism--the two great tastes that go great together...

Giselle said...

First image: Look at Bossie's eyes. Look at Chef's face.

Those two are on some serious drugs, dude...

Second image: Bossie looks like she has indigestion. Too much Pad Thai?