Compassion Is The Only Way To A Happy ThanksLiving Day

With gratitude to all those who live compassionately. <3

Thanksgiving - Nothing Tastes As Good As Life Feels

Okay all you bird cooking, turkey munching fans - Looks like today's your big day! The pressure's all on YOU, especially the chef/cook extraordinaire! 

Here's assuming you've either found your thawed "fresh" bird (which could incidentally be up to 2 years "fresh"), or that you've dedicated a shelf in your refrigerator for a week or so, in order to defrost the carcass... You've made a meat locker of sorts in your fridge haven't you? Oh how cozy and inviting that must have felt when you went to grab your grapes or mustard. :/

Next we know you've absolutely got your recipe down on what ingredients you're going to stuff into the anal cavity to bake your special ass-bread. And make sure too that you pat that corpse down with all the right plant based seasoning, spices, flavorings and herbs... Wouldn't want a plain-old bland tasting bird - now would you?

Make sure you've sufficiently slaved over the hot oven, basting often with that stolen dairy butter. Burning one's own flesh on the rack or roasting pan is appropriate as well. The point is that this MUST be the meal a lifetime! It MUST be worth every single step of work, agony, and pain. For that's what it cost someone else.

Indeed, this meal MUST be so good that the stolen life MUST be removed from the consciousness of the diners. And what a relief that you didn't have to pay the hit-man directly! The unseen, invisible life-snuffer won't whisper a word about your pact. We'll have no momentary regrets or memories of the knife that slit the bird's neck. No snippet of thought that his/her entire life was pure misery. No... This is how deliciously decadent and juicy your turkey MUST be. It MUST be better than life - for that's what it cost. Someone's life.

You mustn't fail in any of these steps... The bird MUST be cooked to perfection. The aroma MUST bring the house down with groans of anticipation. It MUST be a visual Norman Rockwell portrayal of wholesomeness and down-home goodness. It MUST deliver and impart an atmosphere of sheer contentment and peace. 'Cause that's what the holiday is all about right? Being thankful for peace? But... But isn't that going to be very, very hard to pull off, even with your perfectly roasted and beautifully trimmed, murdered centerpiece? We sure hope no one remembers the violence it took to get this MUST-have, perfect meal going...

No. You're just going to have to do your best to cook and host the most delightful, worry-free, fantasy-meal of a lifetime. Because that's what it cost someone else. It cost them everything. It cost them their life. You MUST bring this bird's whole life existence and ending to culminate in an equal value or more of what it cost. If not, it's a sacrifice. It's a sham. A fraud. A waste. And a pity.

You MUST make this meal - Better than life itself: You MUST do the impossible!

No pressure now. Eat heartily... And watch for those small, sharp bones.

A Tradition Of Compassion - A Vegan Heritage

There's this tradition:

Heritage Turkey Processing

Or you can make a new ones:

In Thanksgiving For the Birds, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau eloquently debunks the myths around the "traditional" foods surrounding Thanksgiving.

"Most people don't know that our contemporary customs at Thanksgiving, namely the serving of turkeys, were shaped and popularized by a magazine editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, in the mid-1800s. Whatever meaning we attribute to this Thanksgiving holiday is most certainly not lost (in fact, it is enhanced) by creating food-based rituals that affirm rather than take life, that demonstrate compassion and empathy rather than selfishness and gluttony, that celebrate the fact that no one need be sacrificed in order that we should eat."

And in Talking Turkey she speaks truth to power: "If you've never met them, turkeys are magnificent animals, full of spunk and spark and affection. I've introduced many people to the critters at farmed animal sanctuaries, and the animals with whom people have the most transformative experience are the turkeys. Every time. Never fails. Join me as I tell some stories of special turkeys I've had the privilege of meeting and as I explain why I'm still making amends to the animals, whose breasts, legs, and wings used to darken my dinner plate." 

*****

“A farmer gave his son a hatchet and a turkey saying, "Take this bird out behind the barn where no one can see you and kill him.”  Being an obedient son, the boy vanished behind the barn only to return several minutes later with the still very much alive turkey.  “What is the matter?” asked the farmer. “Did you not understand my instructions?”  The son looked his father in the eye and said, “But Father, everywhere I went the turkey could see me!” The son in this story has made the shift in awareness that we feel the people of this world need to understand. Just because a sentient being cannot talk does not mean they don’t have a point of view on whether they live or die.”

Seth Tibbott

President and Founder

Turtle Island Foods and Tofurky

You can read about Seth Tibbott, who has literally saved the lives of millions of birds, here, here, and here.

photo courtesy Leilani Münter for The Ghost In Our Machine

Thanks to all who have made compassion 

part of the vegan heritage. :)

A Disturbed Turkey Party

The captured image below is from a video titled The Turkey Party. The creator of this video also hosted the beheading of this bird by a very young, inexperienced executioner. No need to watch the gore... Suffice it to say that the crowd of guests got to witness this creature endure a series of brutal, inaccurate swings.

People excuse the habit of eating animals by saying that the victim doesn’t know, doesn’t feel, doesn’t care, is complicit, or isn’t even there. This one turkey certainly knew. Felt fear. Was terrorized. Resisted. And was definitely present in all of his desperate being until his exhausted end.

*****

And just like this video and the people who made killing a festive event, centuries ago people won lotteries for the opportunity to witness these acts of slaughter and relished seeing the final moments of expiring life.  

Entertainment for the mob

And just like this video too, these public and legal murders weren't without their incidents of ineptness either:

In Britain, beheadings were carried out by the “common hangman”, who had very little practice or experience, which often led to unfortunate consequences. These axemen would often show up in a drunken state, no doubt to numb themselves from the task at hand. And just like the Turkey-Party-butchers the positions of headsman were often passed down from father to son.

In 1587 it took four blows to remove Mary Queen of Scot's head.

Robert Devereux Earl of Essex was executed at the Tower of London in 1601. Over 100 people witnessed the execution - three strokes of the axe were needed to sever his head.

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was dragged to the scaffold but refused to lay her head on the block. She struggled and was forced down. The inexperienced executioner made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. She leapt from the block and was chased by the executioner, with his axe in full swing. She was struck eleven times before she died. There were 150 witnesses to her execution.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1834) Paul Delaroche

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England was terrified at the prospect of being beheaded by an axe. She was therefore granted some clemency and a swordsman was called from France to undertake the execution.

Queen Catherine Howard, pleaded with her husband King Henry VIII to supply her executioner with a block so that he could practice her execution.

In 1890 Anna Månsdotter of Sweden was executed. In her case, the blade of the axe passed through her lower jaw which was left attached to her neck afterwards.

The Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh by Severino Baraldi

The victims would pay the headsman large sums in hopes that he'd complete his job with swift precision. The victim was also expected to forgive the executioner.


                "Please don't hurt me. I don't want to die!"

I realize that even today in the most primitive cultures such depraved violations of life and the sanctity of one's body still occur to humans, and most of us recognize it as barbaric and unjust. But these executions take place in "turkey parties" in hundreds of slaughterhouses every second. Likewise, the crowds huddle around the meat cases and tell the same lies, that the victims didn’t know, didn’t feel, didn’t care, didn't resist, or are made invisible. These deceptions let mobs make self-serving exceptions that trivialize butchery, under the guise-of-a-leap of "humane" faith.  

"Anyone who says that life matters less to animals than it does to us has not held in his hands an animal fighting for its life. The whole of the being of the animal is thrown into that fight, without reserve." 
(Elizabeth Costello, in J. M. Coetzee's book The Lives of Animals)

If you intend to have one of these sacrificed turkeys as a holiday celebration - Please don't fool yourself that this being didn't have a violent and painful death. Or that they didn't struggle and plead for their lives. No one consents to be killed. And we know their life was full of misery as well. 

This is just one suggestion in thousands of options that will allow you to avoid the un-festive consequences of botched slaughters and the gloom that comes with all killing. On holidays and always, please consider kind, abundant, life-affirming vegan options instead. Thank you.

United Poultry Concerns

sources:

Execution by beheading

Executions at the Tower of London

Being Thankful for Living Turkeys - A Compassionate Holiday

I sure don't want to leave this blog in a cranky or unhappy state during what should be a nice celebration of abundance!  Tomorrow for the 4th year I'll be feasting at a banquet spread consisting of beautiful plant based foods. My group calls it ThanksVegan - And indeed the food and the company make me very grateful for Vegans who are thankful and thoughtful.

So in pre-holiday festivities I thought I'd leave Provoked on a pleasant note with some of my favorite messages of a compassionate nature:

The story of Sadie and her three sisters rescued and residing at Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary.

This affectionate and very vocal turkey at Animal Acres is guaranteed to make you smile!

And the recent rescue of one super lucky turkey hen by Animal Place Sanctuary. Someone to be Thankful For

But all of us who are opting for other choices during holidays - before and beyond - give sanctuary to all birds and beings all the time!  We've found a way to feast on "life-giving not life-taking foods" :

With bountiful gratitude to all who have done so!
Happy ThanksLiving!

This Vegan Doesn't Get Nice, Holy Killing

Holy and home-style slaughter... There's a lot of that going around these days. In fact each November marks the beginning of a two month long blood bath of victims that will either be killed to serve "religious" custom or gustatory delight. In any case, seems like everyone wants to get in on doing it "nicely" themselves.



For instance, from The Jakarta Post: City gives all sacrificial animals a nice, clean bill of health - 10,796 cows, 964 buffaloes, 47,618 goats and 3,450 sheep were killed on one day mostly by do-it-yourselfers...


In Kuwait "My family will feast on this sheep tonight," said one Kuwaiti customer, Salah, who planned to slaughter the animal at his house. "It's fine. This is Halal."


"I will slaughter the animal in my house, because it's better for the children to see it." (Isn't that nice?)


In Spain there is the (nice) Festival of Sacrifice - Killing of Lambs


And all over the U.S. (nice) hunters will begin their annual gutting and "dressing" of their kill over picnic tables and in their garages... Just in Michigan alone hunters are expected to kill 275,000-300,000 during the firearms season that opens tomorrow...  More than half of the deer killed will be shot on the first two days, and a large percentage of them during the first minutes after dawn. Yeah... They even take their kids out of school for the (nice) experience.  


Yep, the blood sure does spill - And everyone wants to get into the act! "Nicely" of course as this Equal Time Radio interview indicates. Just 3 minutes into the discussion I heard the word used 9 times! Yes, everything about killing animals up close and personal is so very "nice".


And just think for those planning a "nice" turkey-dinner, (who can't participate in the holy-bloodletting event themselves), are paying someone else this very moment to do the deed for them!  Of course - It's all so very nice.


nice

   [nahys]  Show IPA

adjective, nic·er, nic·est.

1.

pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit.

2.

amiably pleasant; kind: They are always nice to strangers.


Synonyms: friendly, delicate, exact, polite. 

I suppose then, that the antonyms: unpleasant,  unkind, careless and rude would apply to those who don't kill or don't pay others to kill for them.  

You know who I think is rude? People who abuse animals. Killing an animal and eating its decomposing body could at the very least be described as “rude”. Am I rude for bringing this reality to these people’s attention? Perhaps they may view it as such simply because it is unpleasant news to be confronted with. For them to call me rude for bringing this up is simply the pot calling the kettle black. ~Vegan Rabbit

Yep, that's us alright... vegans who'd rather live another way... Apparently we're rude and not so "nice". 


So as these "holy" days advance I think it's fair warning for me to fess up and admit I just don't speak the same language as others do!  


And since this is the case - Please, family, friends and neighbors spare me the confusion when you tell me how "nice" it was that your brother shared his venison with you... Keep me from being embarrassed and bewildered when you say how "careful" you are because you source "free range" eggs... Refrain from telling me how your God will offer you mercy because you "humanely" slit the throat of a lamb... I confess!  I don't understand a word you say!  


When you tell me you're planning a "nice" Thanksgiving... I haven't a clue what you're talking about!  And quite frankly... I don't want to learn your pleasant language anyway. But I do understand Benjamin Zephaniah who knows how to talk turkey AND how to be sincerely nice! 


So in your festivities and celebrations that gorge on "compassionate" murder... Consider me uncommunicative and unable to comprehend you.  Oh yeah and if you're killing animals?... 
Be sure to 

               !

Salmonella Contaminated Turkey Fails While Tofurky Market Expanding

A terrible incident has occurred in which almost 80 people have been infected and one person dead from an outbreak of anti-bacterial resistant Salmonella connected with "turkey" products.


Despite a recall back in April of 55,000 pounds of Jennie-O turkey meat, the USDA and CDC had yet to name the source of the current outbreak.  And really, it's no wonder about the confusion - The recall was for products packaged on Nov. 23, 2010... Just days before the sacrificed one's were due for worship on holy "Turkey Day". 


The recall has since been expanded to 36 million pounds (16300 metric tons). 

I'm not a mathematician but one turkey weighs about 28.2 pounds.

Art by Twyla Francois

This is incomprehensible cost in bird lives. :(


It's tragic in all ways... To human life and safety. The waste of grain, fuel, water... And the damage to the environment.


It's hard not to see flesh for the destructive curse that it is.


But here's a happier story: Tofurky has just announced the opening of a new plant and is nicely on target for market expansion. Turtle Island Foods: Revolutionary Thinking

And this new facility includes: solar power to heat its water; capture heat from the refrigeration system that can be used as heating source; and employ high-efficiency processing equipment as its pursues LEED Platinum certification. 
Check it out!


Please use compassion and good sense when you gobble... 

A New Tradition: Turkeys Want to be Thankful for Man's Compassion -

We all hear so much at this time of year about the plentiful resources we are blessed with.  And I certainly am grateful too... The bounty we have is immeasurable.  But in all those "things" to want and have... The details in acquiring those "things" is often shielded from our view. How eggs, milk and meat come to be is not without extreme cost to innocent life.

Over 9 billion birds are slaughtered in the US every year... None are considered "animals" even under the ridiculous pretense of the "humane" slaughter act.  Birds... "poultry"... turkeys endure a horrific short life and the most brutal treatment at their death.  I wished I would have known that when I was younger.  I would have spared many lives with better choices... I would have been healthier - And emotionally happier with decisions that reflected my values.  That is the bounty of a good life that was denied to me before.


My experience and teachings centered around "tradition"... Tradition dictates that it is "normal" on this 4th Thursday in November to place a beheaded corpse of what once was a living, sentient being on a festive table.  A "plump" one... With any other "plump" one's gizzards, hearts and necks stuck in their cavity... The void is then filled with another substance that surely contains another animal ingredient.

Yes, I did once stuff and "lace" birds... I did cook, carve and consume their flesh.  But I did so without the thought or care to the life I was taking.  I did not adequately question the life that was taken by force, might, greed and for the sake of the sacrificial "ritual".

But I am grateful for the knowledge that I have now.  No animal wishes to die.  And the truth is - We don't "need" to eat them to be healthy and to thrive.  A plant based diet can provide all that is necessary and satisfying.  Seems that at some point we should be returning the gifts to the innocent that have "provided" so much in the past... Isn't it about time that they have something to be "thankful" for?  Perhaps thankful for man's compassion?


Not all traditions are worthy of admiration and respect. Tradition should never be an excuse for cruelty, and surely harmful practices should not be condoned just because they are cultural practices.
Michele Pickover, a spokeswoman for Animal Rights Africa

Thanksgiving Myths - Humane Turkey & Sharing with the Indians

The life of a turkey is filled with suffering that you and I cannot fully imagine.

Thanksgiving is the celebration of a dual genocide: one against native people, and one against turkeys.

The first Thanksgiving Day celebration in 1637 was proclaimed by the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, not as a festival of the Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal to celebrate the cooperation between the two communities, but as a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children.

The Pequot were celebrating their annual green corn dance when white mercenaries ordered the Indians out of the building in which they were celebrating. As the Pequot exited the building, they were shot to death. The remaining Pequots were burned alive.

If anything the first Thanksgiving was the kickoff to the systematic obliteration of a race of people that continues to this day, and is evident in the disproportionate poverty, poor health, and unemployment levels. Native Americans living on reservations have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, and disease of any ethnic group in America.

This does not sound like anything to celebrate or be thankful for, but in some great cultural conspiracy, we’ve been manipulated to believe Thanksgiving is a day to spend with loved ones in a state of patriotic fervor while devouring shameful amounts of calories.


Neither is there anything to celebrate in the murder of 45 million turkeys for one day (an additional 22 million turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas). Over 280 million turkeys are slaughtered every year in the US for food.

The life of a turkey is filled with suffering that you and I cannot fully imagine. The majority of turkeys for your Thanksgiving table are raised in warehouses where they will never see the light of day, and allotted three square feet of space to live their abbreviated life. To prevent them from injuring each other in such cramped quarters, most turkeys have one-third of their beaks seared off with a red-hot blade, and their toes cut off, all without painkillers and all within the first few days of their lives. It is also typical to cut off their snoods, the fleshy appendage above the beak, with scissors.


These naturally sweet and social animals are unable to engage in normal turkey behaviors such as perching, dustbathing and sunbathing. Mothers and babies begin to bond while the baby is still inside the egg, as do chickens. When inside the egg, little turkeys are already able to vocalize and “talk” to their mothers. Young birds are completely dependent on mothers, and their absence renders commercially bred turkeys helpless. Sometimes they cannot find food or water because no one ever showed them how. Turkeys often form strong bonds with each other as well, sometimes with other animals. They do not have the ability to do so in crowded warehouses.

Since they have been genetically manipulated to develop extremely large breasts in a short period time, they grow so awkwardly large that they are unable to hold up their own weight. Because of this they are no longer able to breed naturally, so females must be inseminated through rape. This also causes serious health problems like heart attacks and organ failures, however, most turkeys never live long enough to experience these issues since they are slaughtered at around five months old. (Yes, you are eating a baby bird.)

If you feel smug about only eating free-range turkey, there is very little difference in how the turkeys are treated on these farms. The term “free range” only means turkeys are allowed outside 51 percent of their lives. They don’t live idyllic lives on a farm, as the term implies.

Free-range turkeys are also genetically manipulated to grow unusually large and still undergo the same tortures as factory-farmed turkeys such as debeaking, detoeing and desnooding.

Whether a turkey comes from a free-range farm or a factory farm, they all undergo horrific conditions on the way to slaughter. Turkeys are gathered up and carried upside down by their legs and thrown into crates on transportation trucks. Most trucks have no protection from the weather, whether that be extreme heat or cold, and are usually denied food and water in transit. All turkeys end up at the same slaughterhouses where they are hung upside down by their legs and dipped in electrical baths to “stun” them. If they are not stunned, their throats are slit while they are still conscious. There are many occasions where they miss the hot bath and the blade, and end up plunged alive in scalding tanks to remove their feathers. It is all perfectly legal, since birds are exempt from the ironically named “Humane Slaughter” Act – ironic in the sense that of course there is no such thing as humane slaughter of humans or non-human animals.

I have a difficult time experiencing gratitude on a holiday that celebrates and worships the dual genocide of a race of people and a species of animal.

If you wish to truly express and share gratitude on Thanksgiving, how about choosing to eat a vegan meal? There are a myriad of satisfying and cruelty-free seasonal vegan recipes on the internet.

How about taking some time to meditate on the genocide of the Native Americans? Or kick off your holiday meal with a reading from A People’s History of the United States by the late, great Howard Zinn.

Instead of being forced to spend the holiday with shirttail relatives, feeling faux gratitude, take back Thanksgiving and celebrate the fact that your Thanksgiving has been respectful of people, animals, and the planet. I know that I’ll be grateful.
Grace:


Thanks to the original post Thanksgiving: A Celebration of Genocide by Gary Smith

I was for Animal Rights - Thoughtfulness for Turkeys

I didn't eat a vegan meal... But I know I was for Animal Rights I guess I was about 5 when this photo was taken... It's a very modest table setting - representing what a single mother could afford, made more special with a candle and a cake... I can't honestly remember back 50 years ago to what I was praying for then... I didn't have an understanding of war, or poverty or death. But what I do remember is what I thought of animals... I loved them! All of them! Whether their homes were in a barn, cave or tree. I was taught to be kind to them. And that their lives mattered. I understood that hurting them was a bad thing to do... At five, and a scant 40 pounds I would have defended terrible monsters who might do harm to my animal "friends". At five, I hadn't yet asked what I would soon learn to "forget" or rationalize; That it is wrong to cause unnecessary pain, suffering and death. At five, I lived my convictions for what merit they had... At five I was for "Animal Rights". And at 55 I am for Animal Rights anew! I've had decades to discover obscure truths about "necessity", "need" and "fairness" to Others. No, I did not "mourn" for the turkey's stolen life then... Nor do I do so today. To all who live thoughtfully - Happy ThanksLiving! Please Go Vegan

Humane Turkeys - Cheap Meat - Same Slaughter

There is an article here which compares the impracticality of selecting a "free range" 80 dollar turkey as opposed to an industrial carcass which sells for 88cents/lb. The argument is that animal industries have provided us with cheap food, so consumers should take advantage of the savings. On issues regarding the "humane" treatment of "Free Range" turkeys is questionable... "Free Range" labels mean very little and standards are not enforced by any regulation... And the fact is that most of these birds still endure a harrowing transport to a brutal slaughterhouse... Right next to his brothers raised in a "factory"... Or at the very least... your turkey met it's worse day at the hands of a "private butcher". How "humane" is it to cause that to happen? Now, the cost of the industrial bird also has payments not seen at the register: Because "factory farmed" animals are raised in extreme confinement they are given antibiotics and drugs which make our own medicines less effective... The manure from poultry houses or other "livestock" facilities is responsible for the contamination of ground water and rivers... Leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup. Meat packing and slaughter plants exploit and abuse, not only the animal victims but the human workers too. So, if one is concerned with these issues: The economics.... The "fair" treatment of living beings... The health issues, and the environment - there is a third option which this article avoids - If one is sincere when they say these things matter to them... The option is to leave the turkey off the plate entirely. The option is to not support a business or "tradition" that violates Others. Walking the walk - and meaning what you say... means to make a sincere effort to follow through with action that is part of the solution. The most immediate and concrete effort one can make if they claim they "care" about the "welfare" of these turkeys, (or any animals) is: DON'T EAT THEM. Very simple. Still, I know that the vast majority of people will say one thing... And do another - And as long as everyone else is in the party and the denial: Let the rose-colored glass, feasting begin:

Turkeys Die in Fire * Inhumane Animal Agriculture - Go Vegan

A fire swept through a large turkey barn in rural Cannon Falls, Minn. And like the other factory farm fire where tens of thousands of chickens were burned alive... 25,000 turkeys met this cruel fate by flame too.

Call me old fashioned... and I might be- but does being burned alive sound "humane"? I know, the industry and people who eat chickens and turkeys will say it was an "unavoidable accident". But it would never have occurred if the birds were not in those warehouses to begin with... If people did not eat birds they would not have to endure the fires... or the transport trucks, or the slaughterhouses.

For those who may not know... As inadequate and hypocritical as the "humane slaughter act" is - birds are excluded from any kind of "protection" under this "law". So, the chickens and turkeys fate might have been to be stuffed in crates with broken wings and bones; Or they may have been scalded while alive... Or many may have had their throats slit while still conscious.

Perhaps suffocating in smoke and fumes may be a merciful death after all? And if it is - what in the world does that say about animal agriculture and "meat" consumption?

Maybe it tells you... what it did me: Go Vegan.

Live Turkey Shoots - Cruel Killing Supported by the NRA

No, we're not done with turkeys quite yet - I knew of Pennsylvania's cruel pigeon shoots... where it is legal to release dazed, dehydrated and starved pigeons for the purpose of being used as targets for rifle wielding thugs. But I never knew till now of the state's ongoing "Live Turkey Shoots"... Keep in mind... these are factory farm turkeys that have their feet shackled! SHARK - SHowing Animal Respect and Kindness is noted most for it's undercover investigations exposing the cruelties in the "American" pastime of rodeos and bullfighting - but I thank them for taking the causes of these defenseless birds under their wing. Thanks SHARK - keep up your good works!

Life is So Cheap When You Eat Meat... Vegans Do Not Play With Their Food

Video: Turkey Bowl In Cincinnati An Annual Tradition - Strange & Interesting News: The Post Chronicle - And Cincinnati folks aren't the only ones partaking in this event... Seems pretty ordinary if you search Google or Youtube. The frozen carcasses are propelled for fun and pleasure at bowling pins, coke bottles etc... What a game huh? The "meat" is then discarded as it then becomes unsuitable for consumption... So let me get this right... As a "humane" culture, society professes to use/kill animals only because it's "necessary" - Animals and meat sustain us right? But instead of being reverent to the "sacrificed" (murdered) animals what's left of their once tortured bodies gets further defiled in death for "entertainment". Hey world... and omnivore people I share the planet with... the absolute irreverence for life - FOR SHAME! And if your stuck in your kitchen now - disposing of a half-eaten bird because yet another time you bought way too much, please consider this: it took 12 pounds of grain to create each pound of turkey that you are no doubt now dumping in the trash. And a sentient being spent 6 months of torture to make it's way to your "festive" table - FOR SHAME! If each of us had to live only one hour of these poor miserable birds - I'm sure we would all be vegan...

A Gentle Peaceful & Joyful Vegan Thanksgiving

I am thankful for a Gentle Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the rescues at Farm Sanctuary And for Joanna Lucas at Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary who shares with us the plentiful bounty that exists when all life is deemed of value:

Melvin and I have much to be thankful for. I for one am thankful for Melvin's presence next to me today, for his life, for this moment of connection we are sharing under the wide open sky. And for the luminous memory of his five brothers: George, Stanley, Alfred, Elmer and Archie. As a group, they were a slow motion parade - an extravagant display of panache, moxie, charisma, flamboyance, and supreme self-confidence. Not a group of mere mortals to know and love, but a magnificent cavalcade of richly feathered tails, quivering wings, shifting color, triumphant song and vibrant dance to experience and be awed by. We WERE awed. These big, beautiful birds, whose bodies had been systematically mutilated and broken in the name of "Thanksgiving" dinner, never ceased to express with inexhaustible passion and panache not only their absolute love of life but, most heartbreakingly, their absolute certainly that life loved them back - missing toes, severed beaks, fractured joints, brittle bones, collapsed lungs, struggling hearts, terminally broken bodies and all. One on one, they were just regular turkeys: curious, inquisitive, sensitive, communicative, friendly, affectionate. Regular guys, with good and bad sides, good and bad days, ordinary and extraordinary qualities, personal errors and personal triumphs. Generally friendly. Sometimes shy, cranky, or foolish but always aware, always full of feeling, perception, memory and, astonishingly, always full of enthusiasm. If I had to use only one word to describe turkeys it would be "enthusiasm". Not euphoria, not excitement. Enthusiasm, straight from the root of the word: "en theo", "with god". I haven't met anyone who is more connected with the throbbing grace of every living heartbeat, and more intent on communicating this awareness than turkeys are. And they communicate it constantly, contagiously, and with the touching certainty that they are heard and understood. They used to follow us around, issuing forth an almost constant stream of melodic replies, opinions, observations, remarks, wisecracks, and comebacks that our limited hearing range distinguished mainly as gobbles and clucks, but that their infinitely more sensitive ears discerned as complete and meaningful musical phrases that were constantly enriched with color and touch signals - colors we can't see because we are blind to ultraviolet light, and touch we can't feel because we are numb to the touch that can be felt only through the tips of feathers. So we listened humbly to these beings whose experience of the world's colors, scents, and sounds is so vastly richer than ours, whose awareness of the world's beauty far surpasses ours, and we kept listening even though we were aware that we understood only a fraction of what they communicated. Probably, they voiced things that are interesting to all of us - friends, foes, finds, fears, pleasures, loneliness, hope - and things that are interesting only to other turkeys. Whatever it was, it was obviously worth expressing. Often, the six brothers approached sanctuary visitors as a group, but just as often, they separated from the flock and visited alone with their favorite people. Like most turkeys, they were both perfectly gregarious and perfectly independent, blessed with a remarkable gift for both vibrant social interaction and quiet solitude - sometimes gregarious, sometimes, with equal ease, solitary creatures. Today, it's just Melvin and me. I sit on the ground and he climbs in my lap, warm and pulsing with the mysterious life within, and the soft bare neck, the beating heart, the living stillness of his being. A wide open heart, a vast field, a free sky, a warm breeze, an ape and a turkey, communicating about what matters most - love, loss, life - one being speaking to the being of another. We have much to be thankful for. Thank you for this moment of grace. Thank you for Melvin's luminous presence. Thank you for his brothers' glorious days of freedom. Thank you for those of us who find it intolerable that countless persons like Melvin are forced in and out of short, miserable lives, mutilated, mocked, raped, forced to live in their own excrement, tormented, mass murdered, dismembered, burned, used for an evening's amusement, and flushed into mass graves. Thank you for the growing number of hearts who refuse to ignore this atrocity, refuse to support it, refuse to perpetuate it and, certainly, refuse to give thanks for it.
And I am thankful that I've been able to break from "tradition" to see my way to a more compassionate and ethically consistant life...

VEGAN CRUELTY FREE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY TURKEY

There's absolutely nothing I wouldn't eat on this bird It all looks like delicious, safe, nourishing, cruelty free - Real food to me. I am thankful for a VEGAN Holiday

Gwyneth Paltrow Celebrates Thanksgiving with Sacrificed Carcass

I see this particular holiday as a time of mourning... No other occasion demands the specific sacrifice of one particular species of animal to represent "tradition". And when one considers the brutalization... the fear and painful slaughter of these beautiful birds... it's clear that this "holiday" is hardly a "celebration" at all. The tortured carcasses placed as a centerpiece on a table meant to represent "happiness" and thankfulness... Well, it's all quite absurd - really...

Paltrow obviously finds animal murder "acceptable" under certain conditions:

Sarah Palin video with Slaughtered Turkey

Of course Sarah is totally out of her league - she's much more comfortable with the moose, polar bear and wolf killing... But looks like this time - plain old turkey bloodshed will have to do: