Dead Ox Walking
The BBC have filmed it, local dignatories have visited it, Ledbury Cyclists plan to visit it; it has posed for photograhpers and been drawn by an artist and it can be seen all over Ledbury promoting its own execution. It is the ox that is to be slaughtered for the meat feast that is Ledbury Ox Roast.
Although the slaughter will be kept hidden from the squeamish masses and health and safety dictates it will not be cooked outside the Market House on a giant spit in the spirit of yesteryears, this dead ox walking is innocently approaching its own ceremonial sacrifice.
But who is meant to prosper from this Hermean feast? Is it the Queen of the Land in whose coronated name this event is supposed to celebrate? Is it the Ledbury traders wanting to encourage people to attend the town centre event? Is it not an offering to a popular unseen deity, as the flesh is to offered (ticket price £5) to the townsfolk and visitors of Ledbury.
"The Beast is Back" declares the Ox Roast poster, as if this is some kind of bizarre reincarnation, that must again be reduced to bap filling. Can this be interpreted that there is but one beast, not millions, that are slaughtered for our meat lust? Is it easier on the conscience to kill the same beast over and over again, in preference to the perpetual mass slaughter. It is a strange imagination indeed. The dead ox walks again.
And by labelling the Ox a 'beast' does it make the slaughter and feast easier? Is this some medieval beast that has trampled, killed and devoured our young and our elderly? Is this the same beast that lays waste to our fields of rapeseed and lurks in the forests, where we dare not tread in fear of our own lives? Of course not.
The ox is a humble animal, castrated by the farmer, that has historically drawn the plough and given itself up for meat - the French call it beef, but 'beast' denotes an unnecessary negative connotation. In the simple, but practical, traditions of 'indigenous' peoples around the world, the animal that becomes your food should be respected.