The Slaughter of a Pig, Becal, Mexico

The modern American meat eater has at least a passing awareness of where his or her meat comes from. By now, sustained campaigns from all corners of the food world, including farmers, journalists, politicians and vegangelicals, have illustrated the origins and consequences of eating meat, for better or worse. Images of happy “organic” cows or caged, mutilated veal are not hard to find, and the typical carnivore now navigates bans on foie gras, veal and transfat along with crazed excesses like Hardy’s Thickburgers or the turducken.

But in America, one thing we do not do much is slaughter our own meat. We do not go face to face with the animal we are about to ingest. Although hunting remains popular, with about 12 million Americans going after game or fowl each year, it’s still undertaken by relatively small fraction of the population, with even fewer actually eating what they kill (if they manage to shoot anything at all). Bottom line: we are separated from what we eat, even if, thanks to the internet and increased consumer awareness, it is by a thinner line.

Such is not the case in Becal, a small town outside Merida, the capitol of the state of Campeche, Mexico. Our correspondent P. Sundae went to this scorchingly beautiful area this spring on a mission to help build new schools. One night, at a large gathering of some of the local residents, P. and his fellow builders were treated to full-on pig roast. What they hadn’t expected was to see the actual pig they were about to eat slaughtered and cleaned in front of them. It was a moving and at times brutal experience. Fortunately, P. was wise enough to document it. What follows are pictures and videos from before, during and after – including graphic images of the pig being killed and then prepared. Although you may be initially repulsed or disturbed, you will hopefully find them as fascinating as I did. Few of us here in America understand what and how we eat – and in this way, we are less advanced than most of the world.

Due to their intense content, the pictures & video are on a separate page. Click here to view them.