The Veggienista Chronicles: Thanksgiving edition

By now, we're all well aware of the harsh realities today's factory-farmed animals face. Cows, pigs, and poultry varieties are born into a world of torture with no chance of escape. According to PETA-affiliate GoVeg.com's projections, over 45 million turkeys are raised and slaughtered for 26 November alone.

These turkeys, like so many other creatures bred for human consumption, are never granted the freedom to live full, productive lives prior to their appearance on our tables. Instead, they are genetically modified to grow too fast in too little time. This renders them utterly incapable of flight. Not that it matters much, as they're generally kept cooped up in small cages, anyhow. In fact, for a vast majority of these animals, their single opportunity to bask in the sunlight and breathe fresh air lies in the very moment they're being transported into large trucks for deportation to slaughterhouses.

In its article entitled "The Hidden Lives of Turkeys," GoVeg offers the following description of turkeys in their natural environment:

* Ben Franklin had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty—he called the turkey “a bird of courage” and “a true original native of America.” Franklin even suggested naming the turkey, instead of the eagle, as our national bird.

* Turkeys have been genetically modified to gain weight rapidly because fatter turkeys mean fatter wallets for farmers. But in nature, the turkey’s athletic prowess is truly impressive. Wild turkeys can fly at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and run at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. The natural lifespan of the turkey is between 10 and 12 years, but on factory farms they are slaughtered when they’re just 5 months old.

* Male turkeys, or “toms,” are bigger and have more colorful plumage than female turkeys, or “hens.” The males attract females with their wattles, colorful flaps of skin around their necks, and tufts of bristles that hang from their chests.

* Turkeys are born with full-color vision just like our own, and in nature they stay with their mothers for up to the first five months of their lives. These gentle birds are very bonded to their young—in the wild, a mother turkey will courageously defend her family against predators.

* Many respected researchers have spoken out on behalf of this intelligent, social bird. Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage says, “I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings. The ‘dumb’ tag simply doesn’t fit.”

* Even a popular turkey-hunting guide admits that turkeys are far from feather-brained. According to the Remington Guide to Turkey Hunting, turkeys will “test your wits as they are rarely tested in modern life.”

* 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.”

In his new book, Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer delivers an even more in-depth and comprehensive exposé on just how atrocious these factory farms really are. Foer acknowledges that in addition to the injustice done to other living creatures, these farms are detrimental to the environment, as well. Thus, regardless of which way your moral pendulum swings when it comes to animal welfare, the issue of animal consumption is relevant to all of us, as residents of Planet Earth.

My bottom line aligns quite perfectly with that of Foer's book: Celebrate as you will this holiday season, but do so with conviction. Explore your options and make informed decisions about what's placed atop your table.

For more, visit Talk Turkey.
 

For approximately 5 years now, I, Jordan-Alicia, have been a stead-fast vegetarian. While this lifestyle is deemed inadequate by many, I find it both invigorating and fulfilling. In many ways, my desire to respect animals as both precious and equally deserving of life on this planet has allowed me to abstain from eating meat with overall ease. While I do not intend to reinstate my role as an active member of PETA, nor do I intend to obtrusively impose my viewpoints on anyone, the text that follows is, if nothing else, food for thought.