Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Each Thanksgiving, people gather to celebrate gratitude and togetherness. Sadly, many are unaware that the turkey at the center of the holiday table lived a shortened life of immense suffering.
But for 40 years, Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt a Turkey Project has inspired people to embrace a kind holiday tradition by sponsoring the care of a rescued turkey and helping to protect turkeys everywhere. You can do it, too.
Read on to learn more about the lives of farmed turkeys and then make a difference for these smart and social birds.
To maximize industry profits, today’s commercially raised turkeys are bred to grow quickly to an unnatural size. As a result, they’re physically unable to mate naturally and instead are subjected to invasive artificial insemination. Soon, their legs struggle to support their own body weight, leaving many unable to walk or even stand. Some cannot reach their food or water, or suffer injuries or heart attacks.
A turkey unable to stand. Photo: Bear Witness Australia/We Animals.
Nearly all commercially raised turkeys across the country spend their lives inside factory farms—intensive animal factories where these sentient birds are kept in crowded sheds and denied basic care or the chance to engage in their most natural behaviors. Even those on “free-range” farms have very limited access to the outdoors and most likely never spend time outside.
Turkeys are subjected to brutal mutilations including “debeaking” and “detoeing.” These cruel practices are intended to prevent aggression and injuries that are made more likely by the stress and crowding of factory farming. Parts of their sensitive beaks and toes are sliced or seared off without any anesthesia or other relief from pain.
Severely debeaked turkeys
Because they grow so quickly due to their breeding, driven by industry greed, turkeys get twice as big and reach “market weight” (the weight at which they’re deemed ready for slaughter) far sooner than they used to. Today’s factory-farmed turkeys are killed at just four months old or even younger, while their natural lifespans can be as long as 10 years.
Turkeys, chickens, ducks, and geese are denied protections under basic federal animal welfare laws, despite birds accounting for the vast majority of animals used for meat in the United States. Ironically, the only federal law governing the treatment of farmed birds is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and even with its regulations, turkeys and other birds are often still conscious and suffering when killed in slaughterhouses.
Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Turkeys deserve so much better, and you can make a difference.
Take what you’ve learned today and take action below.
Brunnhilde
You can put turkeys at the center of your holiday in a compassionate way by symbolically adopting one of the rescued turkeys who call Farm Sanctuary home. Your gift will help us provide daily, individualized care to your newly adopted feathered friend and the hundreds of other rescued farm animals who live at Farm Sanctuary—while supporting our efforts to save more animals in need and fight the abuses of factory farming.
