Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat is not real, but the outrage it sparks is, even after a year since its creator admitted that she was receiving d**th threats due to her alleged business.
Created by a vegan activist, the satirical farm uses organic, humane-sounding language to market supposed dog meat.
Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat has so far been successful, receiving strong reactions from netizens until today.
Highlights
- A satirical dog meat farm is exposing uncomfortable truths about food choices.
- The project has been so successful that its creator has received d**th threats and widespread condemnation from netizens.
- The fake dog farm is still continuing its activities, with its social media pages still posting dog meat-related content on a steady stream.
Elwood’s creator grew up loving animals but also eating them
Image credits: Molly Elwood
Huffington Post writer Holly Elwood, the creator of Elwood’s, grew up in a rural area, surrounded by hunting, fishing, and a freezer full of meat.
She adored animals, rescuing birds and mice, saving worms from drowning, but she still ate meat without thinking twice.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
Eventually, Holly had her first hunting trip, and she had a deer in her sights.
She just couldn’t do it.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
“I watched through the scope, and she was so pretty in the morning light,” she recalled of her first hunting trip.
“I could see her breath and wondered, ‘Why would I want this moment to end, for myself or for her?’”
She never pulled the trigger and never hunted again.
She wanted to work with animals, just not in a way that caused them pain.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
That contradiction sat quietly for years.
“Everyone I knew ate meat,” she said.
Image credits: Elwood Dog Meat
Eventually, Holly tasted authentic dog meat. It was at this moment that something clicked, according to a Huffington Post report.
Image credits: Elwood Dog Meat
“I joked to my friends, ‘I’ve eaten all the animals. I’m done,’” she said. She initially went vegetarian, though she later became vegan.
Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat started as satire but sparked real-world outrage
The website looks just like any other local meat farm. It promotes its product as organic, free-range, and humane.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
“Much of the content is drawn, word-for-word, from the websites and promotional materials of actual, similar farms — similar, but for the fact that they raise chickens, pigs and cows, for food, instead of dogs,” Holly noted.
After section after section of “Pug Bacon,” “Labrador Steaks,” “Chihuahuaken,” “Dachshund Sausage,” and “Pomeranian Eggs,” some netizens get enraged.
“What kind of person do you have to be to openly slaughter dogs and eat them?” one message asked.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
Others went further. “People have requested that I ‘please kill (my)self,’ and some callers ‘hope (I) get brutally murdered,’” Holly recalled.
These reactions continue to this day. Holly shared some of the d**th threats she has received in her BuzzFeed post last year, but even as recently as a few days ago, some social media users are still getting triggered by the “dog farm’s” alleged business.
“Reported this page. I hope they lock you up and throw away the key. Animal abuse is disgusting and I hope you rot in hell,” one recent commenter wrote.
“This is sick. You killers belong in prison. How disturbing, mentally sick and disgusting, selfish. You're sick to the core,” stated another.
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
According to Holly, the reactions to Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat hint at the emotional disconnect many people experience.
“People get mad when they learn I am a vegan and that the site is satire,” she said.
“As though I have punctured the denial that allowed them to love dogs and eat chickens in peace.”
Holly says Elwood’s is not about placing blame, it’s about asking better questions
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
Shock, yes, but also transformation.
“My intent with Elwood is to be kind. To allow people to have an experience that allows them to think deeply about eating animals — dogs, chickens, cows, all animals — without feeling publicly called out.”
Image credits: Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat
“I want there to be release and relief at the end of someone’s encounter with Elwood’s — release from the belief that we must kill and eat animals, and relief to learn that we don’t have to eat animals anymore,” Holly wrote.
Image credits: Elwood Dog Meat
Elwood’s has reached millions, sparked outrage, inspired mock tasting events, and maybe even helped someone rethink their next meal.
Considering the activity on its social media pages today, it seems like Elwood’s mission is still ongoing.
Netizens shared their reactions to Elwood’s Dog Farm on social media
