Spoiler - 🐖

[u/Shreks16InchUncutHog]

Did anyone get upset when the Hat Creek Outfit killed and ate Gus' pigs in chapter 100? They were Gus' mascot and it seemed to me they were basically Gus' pets. He never had plans to eat them that we know of, and he enjoyed the fact that they were "successful pigs" because they came 3,000 miles from Texas to Montana.

I feel it was pretty wrong to kill and eat Gus' pigs after he died, just because they wanted pork for Christmas. I feel it would have gone against Gus' wishes. Did anyone else feel the same?

[u/Useless_Fish1982]

It shocked me, but they were cattlemen who did not sentimentalize edible livestock. Their horses, occasionally, but not cattle or sheep or pigs.

[u/Shreks16InchUncutHog → u/Useless_Fish1982]

That's true, but I felt because they knew Gus valued the pigs, they wouldn't just slaughter them and eat them. But yeah, I don't think they cared about Gus as much as Call, Newt, and Pea did.

[u/MoneyMontgomery → u/Shreks16InchUncutHog]

Yeah I wish they didn't do that. At least for his memory. But it did mention it was in winter time and I guess they needed to food...though they had brought hundreds of cattle with them.

I thought it was during Christmas or something like that they butchered and ate them.

[u/Poster_Nutbag207 → u/Useless_Fish1982]

They eat the horses constantly 😹

[u/priscilla-aquila]

I agree with you. Broke my heart a little, which is exactly what Lonesome Dove does.

[u/Shreks16InchUncutHog → u/priscilla-aquila]

That is fair! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. It was also upsetting when Call rode off without telling Newt the truth. He did somewhat say it through his actions of handing literally everything he owner over to Newt, but I wish he would have just flat out said it.

[u/BenntPitts → u/Shreks16InchUncutHog]

That's the whole point though IMO. I know it would have wrapped up the character development neatly, but Call doesn't grow unless it involves his next mission or job. That's what Gus and Clara were so mad at him for (more so Clara but Gus recognized it), but also what made him interesting.

I felt bad for Call personally. He just didn't have the tools to express emotion like that, and never would. He did the best he could to claim Newt with his actions before he rode off on his burial mission, but it wasn't enough for a child who was too young to understand why Call was that way. If Newt were a bit older, he might understand that Call never showed any emotion towards anyone, and the affection he showed Newt before he rode off was the greatest act of love he had ever shown anyone, even Newt's mother.

EDIT: Accidentally said Woodrow instead of Gus

[u/PantherThing → u/BenntPitts]

It's sort of interesting that Tommy Lee Jones played him, as apparently the actor in real life shares some of the same rigidity and difficultenss.

I never bought Jon Voight as Call for a second after seeing Jones.

[u/R_Ulysses_Swanson]

I got a little bummed... But you knew it had to be coming at some point, and Gus was really the only one who saw them as "pets". Even so, had he survived, he'd have advocated for it at some point too.

[u/JacklegPreacher]

I'm pretty sure if Gus had lived, he would have no problem with Christmas ham.

[u/HeDogged]

They're not a sentimental group.

[u/Lopsided_Drive_4392]

I thought it provided good closure for the pigs' character development.

[u/Grizzle_prizzle37]

I didn’t have a problem with it. I do understand the outrage among some fans, but pigs are for food, just like the cattle. One year, my wife and daughter named the steer that was destined for our freezer (buttercup, if anyone is interested). We still ate it, and my wife and daughter agreed with me more than once, Buttercup was delicious, but I digress. I think more people would have had a problem with them renting out the pigs than eating them. Augustus made it abundantly clear that the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium does not rent pigs.

[u/PantherThing → u/Grizzle_prizzle37]

Obviously a man who rents a pig is hard to stop, but is there any point to renting a pig, other than eating it with no intent to return it?

[u/treetreebeer]

They don’t rent pigs. Eating is fair game

[u/Wilbarger32]

Good pork was surely hard to come by in Montana at the time.

[u/SerDavosSeaworth64]

I felt a little saddened.

I was definitely rooting for the pigs the entire book, but also as everyone else has said, they were there to be eaten and I’m sure Gus would not have cared about that. He was a bit of a goofball but he was also extremely practical.

[u/Sacfat23]

That was arguable the worst part of the book for me.  Why have him make it all that way only to get slaughtered in the end?!

[u/PantherThing]

It was only Gus who always liked to kick a pig. Once his leg was gone, that was forevermore out the window.

[u/Babayaga844]

Nope.

[u/Plucked_Dove]

McMurtry addresses this in the foreword, at least in the edition I have.