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Matthew Herbert responds to PETA criticism
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 18 February 2010
Matthew Herbert has issued a response to that statement made by PETA, in which the animal welfare organisation criticised the recording of a pig being slaughtered for the producer’s latest project.
As previously reported, Herbert has been working on his ‘One Pig’ project since May last year, with the aim of recording the life of a pig from birth to death, then turning the sounds he collected into music and releasing it all as an album. After initially struggling to find an abattoir that would allow him to record the pig being slaughtered, he posted a message to the blog where he is chronicling the project’s progress last Wednesday, simply saying: “The pig is now dead”.
Prior to the pig’s death, PETA condemned the recording, telling Gigwise last week: “No one with any true talent or creativity hurts animals to attract attention … Pigs are inquisitive, highly intelligent, sentient animals who become frightened when they are sent to slaughterhouses, where they kick and scream and try to escape the knife. They are far more worthy of respect than Matthew Herbert or anyone else who thinks cruelty is entertainment”.
However, Herbert has disputed that the project is cruel, or that his intention was entirely entertainment-focussed. He told CMU this morning: “I’m puzzled and disappointed by PETA’s assertions about ‘One Pig’, because this project is in part about dealing head on with the conditions and realities of a modern food industry. As I eat meat, I would have thought PETA would have been pleased that I am confronting the consequences of that choice”.
He added: “Unlike most industrial pig farms, my pig was kept in excellent conditions but was always grown by the farmer for slaughter. My desire to listen in to that entire cycle and represent it as music is not, and never was intended to be cynically repackaged purely as entertainment”.
You can read more about ‘One Pig’ at http://thisisapig.blogspot.com
