Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning everyone! Happy Turkey Day!!!!

I must admit, I used to use this phrase freely, without thought, for much of my life. And when I became vegetarian and learned more about the treatment of the turkeys, I abhorred the usage, somewhat sadistic, of the phrase "Happy Turkey Day". How twisted, considering the atrocities that occur to these beautiful creatures. However, I have recently learned more about the wonderful things being done by animal rights activists to rescue turkeys, and have come to see how this phrase could become a rallying cry.......on this day of thanks, let's not forget to save the turkeys! Make it a happy day for them as well as you! Give them a holiday!!!!!

In Some Households, Everyday is Turkey Day

 

 

Karen Oeh and her husband, Mike Balistreri, with two new members of the family. "I am like a new parent," Ms. Oeh said.

It is one thing for the president of the United States to pardon a pair of turkeys every year and then send them off to live out their days in Florida. It's quite another to save a turkey from the Thanksgiving table by inviting it to live with you.  Two weeks ago, Karen Oeh and her husband, Mike Balistreri, who live not far from Santa Cruz, Calif., adopted two turkeys that had been rescued after an airline shipping misfortune in Las Vegas. "I am like a new parent," said Ms. Oeh, 39. "I instantly, totally fell in love, and now I just want to stay home with them."

[...]   (But the sad reality of our factory farms means even those turkeys that are saved, often don't live very long......)

Whether the turkeys come from a shelter or the White House, they don't live very long. Most adopted turkeys are commercially bred broad-breasted whites, genetically disposed to grow to a marketable size in about four months. Even on a diet of only a couple of cups of turkey feed a day, they become obese. They usually develop leg problems, congestive heart failure and arthritis. "One just couldn't get up, so I had to have her euthanized," Ms. Lane said. "Another one just dropped dead one evening."

Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/dining/22turkey.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin