NY Times front page, Int Herald Trib, Bill Maher and Philly News on turkey rescue -- Thanksgiving 2007

[Guest guest]

This week marked the eighth year, since DawnWatch began in late November 1999, that I have been looking at Thanksgiving coverage. Every year I have sent out alerts about veg-friendly articles, asking people to express appreciation, and to write letters to their own papers noting the joys of vegetarian Thanksgiving feasts. This year, I was overwhelmed with other projects during the pre-Thanksgiving period, but most importantly, I realized my efforts were not needed as badly as they had been before. The number of papers that carried veg-friendly Thanksgiving articles was far too great for me to send out alerts on each of them. And the feeling that we have finally reached a tipping point of sorts with regard to media awareness of animal issues was cemented yesterday, as the New York Times carried a front page story, on Thanksgiving Day, about turkey rescue -- with

accompanying photos of turkeys being lovingly hand fed. The story, by Kim Severson, was headed "In Some Households, Every Day Is Turkey Day." The same story is in today's Friday, November 23, International Herald Tribune, on page 2, is headed, "Turkey rescuers thankful for their odd pets."The article focuses on various people who have chosen to adopt turkeys from animal sanctuaries. Of one couple, Severson writes:"Ms. Oeh and Mr. Balistreri will not be among the 92 percent of Americans who will eat turkey today, as estimated by the National Turkey Federation, a trade group. Instead, they have given the birds a softer, easier path that bypasses the oven and leads to the backyard."Severson tells us about the turkey adoption programs at Farm Sanctuary, in New York and Northern California (www.FarmSanctuary.org) and at Animal Acres near Los Angeles (www.AnimalAcres.org). This is a sweet article, and its appearance on the New York Times

front page on "Turkey Day" is groundbreaking. You'll find it on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/dining/22turkey.htmlPlease send supportive letters to the editor.The New York Times takes letters at lettersThe International Herald Tribune takes letters at lettersAlways include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. As I noted with pleasure, I cannot share all of the veg-friendly articles from the last couple of weeks. I will point to a couple of favorites: Comedian host of Real Time with Bill Maher has a piece printed on the popular Huffington Post site headed "George Bush: Pardon All the Turkeys." As a nod to Maher's "New Rules" segment on his weekly show, the piece opens with:"New Rule: The president can't pardon just one or two turkeys this Thanksgiving. He's got to let them all

go."Maher notes the "torture" of turkeys and writes:"Take a look at this video, shot just last month at a typical American turkey slaughterhouse, and this one, shot undercover last year at a Butterball slaughterhouse by investigators from PETA, and you'll see that my use of the word is no exaggeration. Butterball employees, taking a page out of the Abu Ghraib handbook, laughed while they kicked, punched, stomped, and even sexually assaulted turkeys." He includes the following links to shocking footage:http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=north_american_turkey_slaughterhouseandhttp://www.goveg.com/feat/butterball/butterball.aspHe writes, "I ask you to do what I'm going to do and pardon a turkey this Thanksgiving. It's not hard. Just eat something else. Not someone else, because it doesn't seem fair to spare a turkey and roast a hunk of pig or cow instead." He questions ethics that would let us "bow our heads in gratitude for

our families, our friends and our big screen TVs, and then carve into a creature who lived a miserable life and died a horrible death...."And he asks Al Gore, "to stop gazing at his Oscar and his Nobel Prize long enough to read the United Nations report that calls the meat industry 'one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.'"The piece is on line at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/george-bush-pardon-all-t_b_73574.html You can click "comment" at the bottom of the page and have your say. Philadelphia Daily News columnist, Stu Bykofsky, also wrote a delightful piece, published Monday, November 19. Bykofsky's column is headed, "'Pardoned' bird also is doomed." It focuses on the horrendous breeding of modern turkeys such that they are close to death by the time they are slaughtered for dinner tables. As part of an amusing but sad commentary on

the Presidential turkey pardoning fiasco and almost immediate death of most of the pardoned birds, he writes, "Wild turkeys can fly, but 'domesticated' turkeys raised for your enjoyment are so genetically altered they are unable to fly. Some barely are able to walk."He ends with "On Thursday, I'll have lasagna. Same kind the Pilgrims ate."You can read Bykofsky's full piece on line at http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20071119_Stu_Bykofsky__.htmland thank him for it at stubykoI will take this early opportunity to remind activists that the holiday season is a great time for letters to the editor reminding readers that it is easy to extend God's love to all of his creatures (I use the traditional religious language for these traditional religious holidays but you might choose otherwise) by choosing to prepare a vegetarian feast. Many small papers publish almost all of the letters they receive, so why not put in

a good word for the animals? The least your letter is likely to do is to soften the attitude of somebody who is preparing special dishes for vegan family members. And it might do more -- even save some lives!Wishing everybody a joyous and animal friendly holiday season,Yours and the animals',Karen Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php-------You are

d to DawnWatch using the following address: dogs_goodDate: Fri Nov 23 21:24:08 2007

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