Ham: my amputated leg

I’ve always found this a very powerful image. There’s so much symbolism in it.

Legs are one of the few animal body parts that are still sold as recognisable animal body parts. Most meat products nowadays are highly processed, the animals’ organs, mussles and tissues and also their heads, and skin turned into bacon, minced meat, hamburgers, sausages, hotdogs, etc. Because of this processing, the animals have become invisible, and many people will not associate meat products with living sentient animals anymore.

The pig in the drawing has had his leg amputated and given a prosthetic leg. But of course, humans do not simply just take body parts from animals, but kill the animals and process their whole body. It reminds me of an answer which is sometimes given to the question whether a dish is vegan or not: ‘but it only contains a little bit of meat‘. Like the animal is only a little bit dead? Do people who use this as a justification or excuse think that that ‘tiny bit’ comes from a tiny part of the animal’s body and the animal otherwise stayed untouched?

What do you read into ito this image?

I’ve seen this images used on numerous occassions since many years on the internet. But have found only one image credit: Barbara McClure. I have been unable to verify this, so if anyone has any further info, please share. Would love to know the original title, and the meaning the artist gave to it.

I also included this image previously in a post on Graswortels: ‘er zit maar een heel klein beetje vlees in– it only contains a little bit of meat’ (2013).