Food Critic Murders Baboon: Needed Fodder for His Column?!
posted by: Nancy Roberts 104 days ago
I don't know much about the world of London restaurant critics, but it seems to be the ultimate in dehumanizing professions. In his London Sunday Times column this week, food critic AA Gill casually describes how he shot a wild baboon while on vacation in Africa….to see what it would feel like.
To his credit (!), Gill doesn't try to sugar coat his action. He describes his target, a huge baboon: "…picking his fingernails, a hairy geezer sitting in the sun with his shirt off. I took him just below the armpit. He slumped and slid sideways. I’m told they can be tricky to shoot: they run up trees, hang on for grim life. They die hard, baboons. But not this one. A soft-nosed .357 blew his lungs out. We paced the ground. The air was filled with a furious keening of his tribe. Two hundred and fifty yards. Not a bad shot."
Oh, there's where you're wrong, Mr. Gill. It was a very bad shot indeed.
While admitting there was no good excuse for his action, he nonetheless tries to explain: "I noticed that, when it was alive, I thought about the baboon as a thing. Now he’s dead, I’m posthumously anthropomorphising him, and that was one of the reasons I killed. I wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone, a stranger."
Stop. Breathe. I note my first reaction: Excruciating execution for this guy, preferably slowly bleeding to death in front of his buddies, sounds like a good idea. Exhale. Pause. Next reaction: What the heck was he thinking? What sick person would find it perfectly acceptable to write about his urge to explore killing primates in a food column? Is he so disengaged from life and his place in it that he thinks this is witty? Educational? Cool?
After describing the death throes of the baboon, Gill goes on to review a recently-opened London restaurant called Le Luxe, making laser sharp observations about the frogs legs and the "pork cheeks that were suffering from first-night nerves." One can only assume that Mr. Gill wasn't getting his ego stoked enough by being the food critic for a prestigious newspaper. No, he had to go blow away a wild creature who was doing him no harm and then write about it in the same tone that he uses to analyze a cheese course. Is he so sophisticated, so detached from reality, that he needed to kill in order to feel alive?
I'm not sure there's a Care2 petition for this one: "Ban heartless idiots with egos the size of Range Rovers now." just doesn't quite express the fury, pain and heartbreak of reading this. For once, I am stunned into inaction. As a species, we've got a long, long way to go. And the creatures with whom we share this earth will have to add "London Times restaurant critics" to the list of evils that human beings have created to their and our detriment.
To his credit (!), Gill doesn't try to sugar coat his action. He describes his target, a huge baboon: "…picking his fingernails, a hairy geezer sitting in the sun with his shirt off. I took him just below the armpit. He slumped and slid sideways. I’m told they can be tricky to shoot: they run up trees, hang on for grim life. They die hard, baboons. But not this one. A soft-nosed .357 blew his lungs out. We paced the ground. The air was filled with a furious keening of his tribe. Two hundred and fifty yards. Not a bad shot."
Oh, there's where you're wrong, Mr. Gill. It was a very bad shot indeed.
While admitting there was no good excuse for his action, he nonetheless tries to explain: "I noticed that, when it was alive, I thought about the baboon as a thing. Now he’s dead, I’m posthumously anthropomorphising him, and that was one of the reasons I killed. I wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone, a stranger."
Stop. Breathe. I note my first reaction: Excruciating execution for this guy, preferably slowly bleeding to death in front of his buddies, sounds like a good idea. Exhale. Pause. Next reaction: What the heck was he thinking? What sick person would find it perfectly acceptable to write about his urge to explore killing primates in a food column? Is he so disengaged from life and his place in it that he thinks this is witty? Educational? Cool?
After describing the death throes of the baboon, Gill goes on to review a recently-opened London restaurant called Le Luxe, making laser sharp observations about the frogs legs and the "pork cheeks that were suffering from first-night nerves." One can only assume that Mr. Gill wasn't getting his ego stoked enough by being the food critic for a prestigious newspaper. No, he had to go blow away a wild creature who was doing him no harm and then write about it in the same tone that he uses to analyze a cheese course. Is he so sophisticated, so detached from reality, that he needed to kill in order to feel alive?
I'm not sure there's a Care2 petition for this one: "Ban heartless idiots with egos the size of Range Rovers now." just doesn't quite express the fury, pain and heartbreak of reading this. For once, I am stunned into inaction. As a species, we've got a long, long way to go. And the creatures with whom we share this earth will have to add "London Times restaurant critics" to the list of evils that human beings have created to their and our detriment.
Read more: hunting, baboon, free speech, animal welfare
comments
I believe in GOD. - All those pieces of garbage that abuse animals, abduct & molest & kill innocent children and pimps should all have a real special place reserved in HELL !!
They all belong to the same club. - MONSTERS - Wish we could go back to public executions with stoning, firing squad and hanging.
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why is this inappropriate?
I am literally sickened by this "man's" words, and what he did; I consider it murder. Sadly, I know this kind of thing goes on all the time. Why is this legal???!!!
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why is this inappropriate?
It's jerks like this, that should have that same pain inflected on them. If he makes this bad of a choice why would I trust his judgment in food? Critic without a clue I'd say. I hope it comes back to haunt him 10 fold.
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why is this inappropriate?
what a useless jerk
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why is this inappropriate?
What an absolute waste of space and oxygen he is!! A food critic - is that even a real job? I certainly don't need anyone else to tell me how my food tastes.
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why is this inappropriate?
"The air was filled with a furious keening of his tribe."
The only thing filling the air that day was Gill's ignorance and amorality. The baboon's tribe was righteously outraged and grieving a senseless murder perpetrated in front of them -- nuissances of human behaviour with which Gill would be entirely unfamiliar....
I doubt anyone would mourn the passing of such a boorish, unaware man. You're not One of Us, Mister Gill.
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why is this inappropriate?
This guy is right up there with Jack the Ripper. We'll be reading more about this idiot when he graduates from wanting to know how it feels to kill "someone". This time it was one of the people belonging to a society of Baboons. Next he will be snatching someone off the street, child or female, to see how it feels like to kill one of them. He will probably serve portions to his elitist guests as well as the dumb editor that allowed him to run this tripe.
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why is this inappropriate?
A journalist isn't suppose to be an educated person???? I'm disgusted to hear these kind of things all the time. Please fire him & put him in a mental institution right now!!
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why is this inappropriate?
Killing a baboon is like killing one of your children. Do you know how these baboons die if not killed instantly. I don't think you have ever heard or are you just heartless and HOPELESS.
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why is this inappropriate?
What a sick piece of garbage. Walking feces. This man should be shot in front of his family, or if he has any, his friends. They can all exhibit "furious keening", and then we can all say "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
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why is this inappropriate?
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