Turkey Day 2012!

[Monica]

A British study found that turkeys showed a preference for different kinds of music and sounds, and a poultry scientist said, "If you throw an apple to a group of turkeys, they'll play with it together."(4,5) Some turkey farmers admit that the birds show "signs of personality."(6) Hunters are advised that wild turkeys are "wary" and will "test your wits as they are rarely tested in modern life."(7) The millions of turkeys who end up on American dinner plates are genetically manipulated animals who have brief, painful lives on factory farms that are far removed from the open spaces enjoyed by their wild cousins.

Factory Farms: Wall-to-Wall Misery
More than 248 million turkeys are raised for food every year in the U.S.; ...Before ending up as holiday centerpieces, these gentle birds spend five to six months on factory farms, where thousands of turkeys are packed into dark sheds with no more than 3.5 square feet of space per bird.(10) To keep the extremely crowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, workers cut off portions of the birds' toes and upper beaks with hot blades and desnood the males (the snood is the flap of skin that runs from the beak to the chest).(11) No painkillers are used during these procedures.

Genetic manipulation and antibiotics enable farmers to produce heavily muscled birds who can weigh 35 pounds in as little as five months, and "their internal organs are noticeably crammed together in the little bit of space remaining for the body cavity," according to The Washington Post.(12) ...are so large that they can barely walk, are unable to fly like their wild cousins, and cannot even engage in normal reproductive behavior, so all turkeys raised for food are conceived by artificial insemination.(15)

Millions of turkeys don't even make it past their first few weeks before succumbing to "starve-out," a stress-induced condition that causes young birds to simply stop eating.(16) Catching and transportation are particularly stressful procedures for birds, yet they are repeatedly moved during their short lives...(17)

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 immobilizes them but does not kill them. Many birds dodge the tank but then are still conscious when their throats are cut. If the knife fails to properly cut the birds' throats, then they are dragged through the scalding-hot water of the defeathering tank while still alive and conscious.

In 2006, undercover PETA investigators worked at a Butterball plant in Arkansas and observed that live birds were slammed against transport trucks and walls, punched and kicked, hung by their broken legs, used as punching bags, and even sexually assaulted. One worker was seen crushing a live turkey's head under his shoe until the bird's skull exploded, and another slammed a bird against a handrail so hard that her spine was exposed. For more information about this investigation, please visit ButterballCruelty.com.
...
Turkey flesh is...loaded with more fat and cholesterol than many cuts of beef. A turkey's leg contains more than 700 milligrams of cholesterol and more than 1,600 calories—40 percent of which are derived from fat.(18)

USDA inspection reports reveal that an average of one out of eight turkeys served on Thanksgiving is infected with salmonella, a foodborne illness that sickens more than 1 million people each year and kills 500.(19) Campylobacter, a type of bacteria found in turkeys, causes the second most commonly reported food-related illness.(20)

What You Can Do
Spread some holiday joy to turkeys by sparing their lives. Look in supermarkets and health food stores or on the Internet for Tofurky, Tofu Turkey, Garden Protein's Veggie Turkey Breast, Field Roast, and other widely available turkey alternatives.

http://www.peta.org/issues/Animals-Used-...table.aspx

Getting back to the original point of this thread, how is participating in this cruelty helping to lighten the vibration on the planet, during this very important nexus?