Alumni Weighs in: The Moral Cost of Thanksgiving

Approximately 300 million turkeys are slaughtered annually for human consumption in the United States, despite the fact that such consumption is unnecessary for humans and absolutely horrifying for turkeys. Almost 50 million of those deaths occur for the ritual of Thanksgiving alone.   

Judging from the extreme volume of turkey consumption in the United States, most of us have not given anywhere near enough thought to the process of getting a turkey to the center of our dinner tables.   

There is a hidden conspiracy regarding our food. From a very young age, we see packaging and commercials depicting supposedly happy farm animals. Our parents, our teachers and most textbooks do not challenge these images.   

Dietary guidelines provided by our government promote meat and other animal products as primary sources of protein and other nutrients. By doing some simple research, a person can easily find out the influence of industry on the nutritional guidelines dispensed by our government. It’s time to learn what really happens to farmed animals before they end up on our plates.   

Approximately 99 percent of turkeys in U.S. grocery stores were raised in intensive confinement, even when these facilities describe themselves as free-range or free-roaming. The majority of turkeys will spend their short lives in artificially lit incubators, windowless buildings where each bird has only a few square feet of space. The living conditions are so stressful that cannibalism has been reported within many turkey farms. To eliminate the physical damage from fighting that occurs in overcrowded and unnatural living conditions, turkeys are debeaked and de-toed shortly after birth without any medications. Male turkeys also have their snoods — the fleshy appendage above the beak — removed without pain relief.    

A July 2019 article by Martha Rosenberg, “Are Factory Farmers Winning The Antibiotics War?” explains how the reckless and widespread use of antibiotics makes it possible for farmers to raise animals “in unsanitary, confined conditions that would otherwise kill or sicken them.” Antibiotics also reduce the quantity of feed necessary to raise a turkey and help them gain weight faster. Many articles have expressed concern about human antibiotic resistance from consuming antibiotics via animals, including turkeys.   

Turkeys grow very quickly to body weights more than twice what they were a few decades ago. Genetic manipulation causes domesticated turkeys to grow so large and misshapen that reproduction requires artificial insemination. The terrified turkey hen is held upside down while a hypodermic syringe delivers sperm into her oviduct via the exposed cloaca. Many birds will defecate in fright as their legs are grabbed, and their bodies pushed down with their rear end exposed. This painful and degrading process is repeated every seven days until the time comes for her to be sent to slaughter.    

On that day, regardless of extreme weather conditions, the birds are crammed onto trucks to be shipped to the slaughterhouse. There, the live turkeys are shackled by their weak and often crippled legs, hung upside down, then dragged through an electrified stunning tank before reaching the mechanical throat-cutting blades. The turkeys are supposed to be stunned unconscious by the electrified tank, but that too often doesn’t happen. Sometimes, the blades don’t effectively cut the throat of the turkey, and he or she will tumble into a tank of scalding water and drown.   

Poultry slaughterhouses in the United States process up to 55 birds every minute. Many workers in such places suffer from PTSD as a result of what they witness, and that might also be the reason that hidden cameras on animal farms have caught video of workers engaging in gratuitous acts of violence towards the imprisoned animals.    

How tragically ironic it is that we sit around the Thanksgiving table with our family and friends, talking about everything that we’re thankful for, while the dead body of a brutalized bird sits in the middle of the table.    

In natural settings, the home range of a wild turkey flock can extend up to 60,000 acres as they roam the prairie and woodlands for food, just like quail and pheasants. Wild turkeys will fly into trees at night to roost together, and they routinely care for broods of a dozen or more chicks. Mother turkeys will even team up to watch all of their babies together as a group. Staff caring for turkeys at animal sanctuaries describe these magnificent birds as intelligent and curious, having a wide range of interests and characteristics, including being playful, fun, confident, warm and nurturing. In settings where they feel safe, they possess distinctive personalities, form friendships, and can even recognize hundreds of other turkeys. Their feather coats are soft and pleasant to touch, and many even enjoy being hugged and will run to greet human volunteers with whom they have bonded.   

How much richer our Thanksgiving celebrations would be if we began to value these magnificent beings, not as sources of protein and flavor, but as vessels for the mystery of life that dwells within every living being. That will be a day to be thankful for.    

We are not the only animal that inhabits Earth that has feelings and families. Shame on us for the disconnect.