posted                         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tigerlily:
Some sour facts about Thanksgiving Day:


The Making of a Turkey

by Nathan Runkle, Mercy for Animals
November 15, 2005


Many people think of turkeys as little more than a holiday centerpiece, but turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. Anyone who spends time with them on farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats.

When not forced to live on factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dustbaths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees.

Turkey Factory Farms

Every year in the United States over 270 million turkeys are killed for their flesh. More than 45 million of these turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving alone , and over 20 million are killed for Christmas. Almost all of them spend their entire lives on factory farms and have almost no federal legal protection from cruelty.

Turkeys raised on factory farms are hatched in large incubators and never see their mothers or feel the warmth of a nest. When they are only a few weeks old, they are moved into filthy, windowless sheds with up to 25,000 other turkeys, where they will spend the rest of their lives until they are sent to the slaughter plant. To keep the birds from killing one another in such crowded conditions, parts of the turkeys' toes and beaks are cut off, as are the males' snoods (the flap of skin under the chin). All this is done without any pain relievers — imagine having the skin under your chin chopped off with a pair of scissors. Turkeys who are debeaked and detoed are believed to experience chronic pain. Millions of turkeys don't even make it past the first few weeks of life in a factory farm before succumbing to "starve-out," a stress-induced condition that causes young birds to simply stop eating.

Turkeys are bred, drugged, and genetically manipulated to grow unnaturally large as quickly as possible to increase profits. According to one industry publication, modern turkeys grow so quickly that if a seven-pound human baby grew at the same rate, the infant would weigh 1,500 pounds at just 18 weeks of age. Turkeys are now so obese that they cannot reproduce naturally; instead, nearly all the turkeys who are born in the United States today are conceived through artificial insemination. Their abnormally large size also causes many turkeys to die from organ failure or heart attacks before they are even six months old. According to an investigative report in the Wall Street Journal about the miserable conditions on turkey farms, "It's common in a rearing house to find a dead bird surrounded by four others whose hearts failed after they watched the first one ‘fall back and go into convulsions, with its wings flapping wildly.'" When they grow so obese that their legs can't even support their own weight, turkeys may become crippled and as a result some of these birds die from thirst within inches of water.

When turkeys fall ill because of the conditions or become crippled under their own weight, farmers walk through the shed to kill the slow-growing animals, so that they don't eat any more food. An undercover investigation in Minnesota, the number-one turkey-producing state in the country, revealed that the manager of the farm repeatedly used a metal pipe to bludgeon 12-week-old turkeys who were lame, injured, ill, or otherwise unsuitable for slaughter and consumption. The injured birds were thrown onto piles of other dead and dying birds then tossed into a wheelbarrow for disposal. Birds who were overlooked were kicked or beaten with pliers or had their necks wrung.

Transport and slaughter

Close to 2,000 turkeys can be loaded onto a single truck headed for the slaughterhouse. The turkeys are collected by workers, who grab them by their legs and throw them into large crates. Many birds suffer broken bones in the process. The crates are then loaded onto trucks, and the birds are shipped through all weather conditions without food or water to the slaughterhouse. Millions of turkeys die every year as a result of heat exhaustion, freezing, or accidents during transport. At the slaughterhouse, turkeys are hung upside-down by their weak and crippled legs before their heads are dragged through an electrified "stunning tank," which often immobilizes them without rendering them unconscious. Many of the terrified birds are fully aware when their throats are slit. If the knife fails to properly slit the birds' throats, they are scalded alive in the tank of hot water used for feather removal.

You can help

The best thing that you can do to help animals is to stop eating them. Meatless gravy and stuffing and fabulous faux turkey dishes like Tofurky and Unturkey are easy to find in supermarkets and health food stores. These soy- and wheat-based roasts are kind and delicious alternatives to eating turkey flesh. Visit ChooseVegetarian.com for hundreds of mouthwatering recipes, helpful tips, and thought-provoking information, photos, and video clips.

Contributed by Nathan Runkle, Mercy for Animals

Mercy For Animals (MFA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit Ohio animal rights organization. MFA is dedicated to promoting nonviolence towards all sentient beings through public education campaigns and demonstrations, undercover investigations, and open rescues. Mercy for Animals, PO Box 363, Columbus, OH 43216 www.MercyForAnimals.org.


http://www.freepress.org/journal.php?strFunc=display&strID=332&strJournal=36

---

Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tigerlily:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO ALL OF YOU - WHEREEVER YOU ARE!!!


I hope very much you enjoy this very special day with your loved ones and don't forget - it's not only about eating some stuffed turkey!


Here is some little poetry:


A Family

A Family is a Place
To cry
To laugh
To vent frustration
To ask for help
And tease
And yell
To be kissed and hugged
and smiled at.

A Family is People
Who care when you are sad
Who love you no matter what
Who share your triumphs
Who don't expect you to be perfect
Just grow with honesty
In your own direction.

A Family is a Circle
Where we learn to like ourselves
Where we learn to make good decisions
Where we learn to think before we do
Where we learn integrity and respect for others
Where we are special
Where we share ideas
Where we listen and are listened to
Where we learn the rules of life
To prepare ourselves for the world.

The world is a Place
Where anything can happen.

If we grow in a Loving Family
We are ready for the world.

(Author Unknown)


Some history about Thanksgiving Day:

http://www.thanksgivingworld.com/thanksgiving-history.html

---

Thanks Tigerlily, I will really miss Thanksgiving again this year with the family at home, but I will dream of turkey!

Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by tami025:
My mothers family is 100% native indian. they do not like to celebrate thanksgiving. this is because the white man (europeans) came here that day and brought with them their diseases and their evil. we taught them how to live from the land cause they were literally half starving and what did we get in return? they killed our people, sold the women as slaves and took over.
now my relatives have to live in poor little resevations while the thieves that stole our land thrive from it and have the damn nerve to call themselves the americans. so unless you are of indian descent, you are nothing more than a descendant of whatever country your forefathers came from. please dont be 100% italian and say your american. do what the blacks do and call yourself african american, italian american, german american, etc etc. my great grandfather was taken from his tribe and FORCED to go to a british owned school and take an english name.

sadly, my dad is german and he left when i was 2. so i follow my mothers ways. but yes, i am marked with being half european and i allways keep these feelings inside, until someone wishes me happy thanksgiving;)

not hatin', just debatin'

thanks anyway it was kind.

---

Posts: 1071 | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cosmogirl:

quote:

---

Originally posted by tami025:
My mothers family is 100% native indian. they do not like to celebrate thanksgiving. this is because the white man (europeans) came here that day and brought with them their diseases and their evil. we taught them how to live from the land cause they were literally half starving and what did we get in return? they killed our people, sold the women as slaves and took over.
now my relatives have to live in poor little resevations while the thieves that stole our land thrive from it and have the damn nerve to call themselves the americans. so unless you are of indian descent, you are nothing more than a descendant of whatever country your forefathers came from. please dont be 100% italian and say your american. do what the blacks do and call yourself african american, italian american, german american, etc etc. my great grandfather was taken from his tribe and FORCED to go to a british owned school and take an english name.

sadly, my dad is german and he left when i was 2. so i follow my mothers ways. but yes, i am marked with being half european and i allways keep these feelings inside, until someone wishes me happy thanksgiving;)

not hatin', just debatin'

thanks anyway it was kind.

---

Now ain't this a mothafukkah? No mention of your Foster Family or the Mafia? Don't you think they deserve to be acknowledged? If you Dad left, who scanned those photos for you again? And who was that guy beating your Ex husband up in the street all the time?

DETAILS DUMMY!

---

Arabic speaking woman
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

now who could that be

less than a handful here................

Posts: 3416 | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged |