“Happy Turkey Day”
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An open letter to anyone using the phrase “Happy Turkey Day”:
To whom it may concern:
More than 300 million turkeys are killed in the U.S. every year. 40 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving dinners alone. Today’s farmed turkeys, who have been bred to such extremes that they can no longer reproduce sexually, are overcrowded by the thousands into ammonia-laden sheds where disease spreads quickly. The birds often cannot spread or flap their wings and most will never see sunlight or breathe fresh air, except on their way to the slaughterhouse. A t the slaughterhouse, turkeys are roughly snapped into moving shackles and have their throats slit by a spinning blade, often while fully conscious.
Turkeys are excluded from the federal Animal Welfare Act and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Without any legal protection from cruelty, turkeys face institutionalized and rampant abuse that would warrant felony cruelty charges if the victims were cats or dogs.
Thanksgiving day is not a happy day for turkeys. Nor is the day a happy one for animal lovers who don’t discriminate by caring only for cats and dogs. Please reconsider your phrase “Happy Turkey Day.” Please consider simply saying “Happy Thanksgiving” instead. And if you consider yourself an animal lover, please remember that when choosing your Thanksgiving menu.
Sincerely,
Elaine Vigneault
Animal Lover
The inspiration for this letter:
- An email I received from a local animal shelter with the subject line “Our Shelter Animals wish you a Happy Turkey Day!“
- MFA Turkey Slaughterhouse Investigation
- Some lines above are “borrowed” from MFA
- PETA Minnesota Turkey Farm
- Our Hen HouseEpisode 45: “Now I can look at you in peace…”
- HSUS Inhumane Treatment at Turkey Industry’s Largest Hatchery
Image above from MFA’s newest billboard campaign. Details here >>
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