Forty-five million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving.
There are 6-9 million people in the US who do not eat meat (either vegetarian or vegan). Many of those people save the live of a Turkey every thanksgiving. For those of you who don't think one person being a vegetarian or vegan makes a difference, think about that number. The meat industry isn't going to turn out 6-9 million extra birds that aren't going to get sold so what do they do? They don't breed as many birds and therefore less animals suffer and die as a direct result of veg eating habits.
Ben Franklin praised their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty—he called the turkey “a bird of courage” and “a true original native of America.” He even suggesting the turkey be our national bird. Turkeys are very intelligent creatures, as well as being very paternal.
As Thanksgiving approaches I can't help but think about the apathy and cruelty among many people towards these helpless animals. Sarah Palin gleefully slaughtered a turkey herself last year after pardoning one of it's cell mates, with a type of relish one generally sees in psychopaths.
Ben Franklin praised their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty—he called the turkey “a bird of courage” and “a true original native of America.” He even suggesting the turkey be our national bird. Turkeys are very intelligent creatures, as well as being very paternal.
As Thanksgiving approaches I can't help but think about the apathy and cruelty among many people towards these helpless animals. Sarah Palin gleefully slaughtered a turkey herself last year after pardoning one of it's cell mates, with a type of relish one generally sees in psychopaths.
The life of the turkey on your table was a miserable one. Artificially fattened, most turkeys can barely stand and often suffer from broken feet and legs simply because they cannot support the weight of their own bodies. In the wild, the lifespan of aturkey is 10-12 years, but on factory farms they are slaughtered when they are only 5 months old.
"Erik Marcus, the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, has spent a considerable amount of time with turkeys on farm sanctuaries. He reports, “Turkeys remember your face and they will sit closer to you with each day you revisit. Come back day after day and, before long, a few birds will pick you out as their favorite and they will come running up to you whenever you arrive. It’s definitely a matter of the birds choosing you rather than of you choosing the birds. Different birds choose different people.”" (goveg.com)
There's no reason to slaughter animals in this day and age in America. None at all. We cannot truly call ourselves a civilized society until that civility is extended to not only all people, but all creatures as well.
