While many rock and metal musicians have gone vegan by 2021, the most prominent anti-carnist metal act will always be Cattle Decapitation, whose ugly, gnarly death metal has since their inception focused on the horrors of the meat and dairy industry. However, a Missouri bull farm apparently failed to get the message, and have included the Cattle Decapitation logo on a new promotional billboard.
According to Loudwire, Cattle Decap frontman Travis Ryan shared a photo of the farm’s billboard that had been sent to him by a friend. As you can see in the picture, the logo is mostly obscured by the farm’s decal, an oval image of a bull and the names ‘Brad & Jennifer.’ But any death metal fan can recognize the Cattle Decap logo behind all of this, leading Ryan to wonder the same thing as the rest of us: what was the point of this?
“I just have so many questions,” wrote the vocalist on the post.
It’s understandable that the band’s devotees would find this usage borderline offensive, which one fan brought up, writing, “That’s an insult to your original concept of Cattle Decapitation and what it stands for.” Ryan, however, is more baffled than pissed, responding, “Our logo is obscured so I’m thinking this wouldn’t be the case since they could be covered since it could be covered by parody law. I’m definitely running it by our manager though.” He later went on to say, “I cannot pinpoint the thought process on this lol.”
When asked if he intended to take legal action, Ryan said the band were issuing a cease and desist letter.
In our minds, there are three possibilities here. The first is that the bull farmers somehow thought Cattle Decap were pro-meat, in which case, read past the headline, guys. The second is that they included the logo as some sort of middle finger to vegans, in which case, dick move. The last one, and most likely, is that their designer was having a laugh, and the farmers themselves just thought it looked like spilled wine or something. In any event, the mind reels.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
