Give Turkeys A Chance

This time of year can be difficult. Even though people eat just as many animals every other day of the year, hearing "turkey day" coming out from everyone's mouth drives me crazy. Thanksgiving has become more about eating turkey than anything else. Although I find myself lucky that my family is open-minded to vegan food during the holidays, I think it is insane that other families would not be. How much intolerance towards a vegan is due to the inconvenience of "different" food versus the inconvenience of being reminded that you're eating the flesh of another.

In the news, Sarah Palin has again made headlines due to her stupidity. During a news conference while she was giving a turkey a "pardon", other turkeys were being slaughtered in the background. Although people understood the irony of such an act, maybe this mistake was a good thing. It exposes the ridiculous notion of forgiving a turkey of having tasty flesh, yet millions of others are brutally slaughtered. Read Farm Sanctuary’s statement about this.

The whole notion of giving a turkey a pardon is completely absurd. How did this become a presidential tradition in this country? Isn’t a pardon something you give to someone when you forgive them of some wrongdoing? What has a turkey ever done to anyone? What happens to these turkeys after Thanksgiving? Today, these animals are sent to Disney World to live out there life as a spectacle. Their life is short lived however, since these animals are bred just like any other turkey meant for slaughter, so their heart and other organs cannot support the size their body has grown to.

During the 2003 turkey pardoning ceremony, President George W. Bush states, "I appreciate you joining me to give this turkey a presidential pardon. Stars is a very special bird with a very special name. This year, for the first time, thousands of people voted on the White House website to name the national turkey, and the alternate turkey. Stars and Stripes beat out Pumpkin and Cranberry. And it was a neck-to-neck race." Was this meant to be a pun on their previous fate?

This is why you should make my tasty vegan Thanksgiving recipes or buy a tofurky or anything else you can do to spare another life from being taken for this ritualistic murdering holiday. That is my rant. It is important to not only give alternatives to eating animals in this world, but explain why as well. A wonderful NEW tradition you can do for a turkey every year is to Adopt-A-Turkey!