CANNES, FRANCE — It is one of the most shocking ultimatums ever delivered on television.
Go vegetarian or we kill your pet.
But a new taboo-smashing British reality TV show called “Meat the Family” goes even further.
Not only will a family of unrepentant carnivores have to let an animal they have adopted and grown to love go for slaughter if they refuse to stop eating meat, they will be asked to cook and eat it.
With experts saying that we have to eat less meat to stave off climate change, Channel 4 has made the dilemma stomach-churningly stark.
Four heavy meat-eating families have to take home and look after the “animal which ends up most often on their plates.”
Analyst Virginia Mouseler called the show “the most transgressive” of the year at Mipcom, the world’s biggest entertainment market in Cannes, France.
“It is not sex or drugs anymore. Meat is becoming the next taboo,” the influential founder of The Wit database added. “The question they are asking is how can you cuddle your dog while you are putting another animal in the oven?”
In the first episodes of “Meat the Family,” that involves a lamb, a pig, a chicken and a calf.
“They have to treat this animal like a member of the family for three weeks,” Mouseler said. “Then in the end they have to decide whether they put it in the oven” or whether it goes to an animal sanctuary.
Putting face on meal
Channel 4 said the three-hour-long show would confront “the reality of an animal’s journey from field to plate.”
They said the show would also seriously examine “animal behavior and intelligence, the farming practices required to meet the demands of hungry consumers … and the environmental impact of the meat industry.”
Daniela Neumann, head of the makers Spun Gold, defended the premise, saying it was taking on “some really timely themes of ethical eating” as well as asking difficult questions. “Why do we find it acceptable to eat a lamb but we wouldn’t eat our pet dog? Could you go back to meat once you’ve put a name and face to a meal?”
She insisted that the series, which will air in the New Year, also contained some “heart-warming moments.”
With interest from buyers brisk, the show is likely to go international quickly.
“Meat the family” is one of a wave of new shows that deal with social responsibility and ways to heal our fractured world.
‘Go vegan’
Meanwhile, Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton declared in an Instagram post on Wednesday he was worried about the “extinction of our race” if humans kept eating animals.
“I’m sad right now with the thought of where this world is going,” wrote Hamilton in a post he later took down.
The five-time Formula One world champion urged his readers to “do some research,” “find compassion” and prevent “deforestation, animal cruelty, our seas and climate decaying.”
“Go Vegan, it is the only way to truly save our planet,” Hamilton said on his Instagram page, where videos of cruelty to animals sit alongside pictures of Hamilton modeling clothes, posing with fast cars, celebrating victories or with his dog.
But he was not optimistic concluding: “Honestly I feel like giving up on everything. Shut down completely. Why bother when the world is such a mess and people don’t seem to care. I’m going to take a moment away to gather my thoughts. Thank you to all of you who give a damn about the world.”