Fw: Dawnwatch: Thanksgiving turkey horror video in NY Times, plus Palin video and Newsweek article 11/19-11/22/08

[Guest guest]

Not much makes me cry these days, but the barbaric cruelty mentioned below -- which many of us have heard about by now -- leaves tears streaming down my face. There are no words.

 

I am so thankful that no animal will ever die for my dinner plate.

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DawnWatch <newsDawnwatch: Thanksgiving turkey horror video in NY Times, plus Palin video and Newsweek article 11/19-11/22/08Sunday, November 23, 2008, 10:38 PMWith Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, it's no surprise that turkeys are

have been in the news over the last week. The most widely circulated story is

probably the one in which Sarah Palin, after pardoning a turkey, conducted a fun

chatty interview as the other birds were being slaughtered behind her. Of

greater import is the New York Times report on shocking undercover video taken

recently at a commercial turkey farm. That is covered below.

Those who haven't seen the Palin video can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPDrC1FjjDk

Just over a minute into the video, the man who has been working behind Palin

lowers a live turkey into the slaughter cone. We see the animal's legs

kicking pitifully and we watch the man grab them tight to keep them still as the

turkey bleeds out. It was interesting to watch the presentation of the story in the mainstream

media. One anchor, whose station blurred out the kicking legs, suggested the

video was so gruesome that parents should have children leave the room. Yet, as

one would expect, Palin did her official pardoning not at a typical industrial

plant but at a small farm where the birds are being carefully slaughtered one by

one. While what viewers see may be enough to jolt many sensitive folks out of

their complacency regarding the headless carcass on their table, it is a far cry

from the typical treatment of turkeys who end up as Thanksgiving main courses. The Wednesday, November 19 New York Times article presents a more gruesome and

more typical picture. The piece, by Donald G. McNeil Jr. is headed, "Group

Documents Cruelty to Turkeys." (Dining Section, p D5)

It opens:

"In what is becoming an annual Thanksgiving rite, an animal rights group

on Tuesday released undercover videotapes taken at the nation's premier

poultry-breeding operation, showing turkeys being stomped to death and punched

by workers."

We read that after seeing the video, company representatives at Aviagen said

they ''condemn the abuse of any of the animals in our care and will take

swift action to address these issues.'' Yet one of the many shocking

segments of the video has a supervisor acknowledging that he knows some of his

men enjoy beating up and killing the turkeys. He says that every now and then

everybody gets agitated and has to kill a bird, and that is okay "as long

as they don't do it a lot."

We read in the New York Times piece:

"The Aviagen video can be seen at www.peta.org. The scenes show

stomach-turning brutality. Workers are seen smashing birds into loading cages

like basketballs, stomping heads and breaking necks, apparently for fun, even

pretending to rape one.

"On the tape, one worker describes losing his temper at a tom who pecked

him, marking its head with a pen so he could find it again, fetching a

broomstick, ramming it down the bird's gullet and holding it up in the air

while shouting 'Let this be a lesson to y'all' at the rest of the

flock."

You'll find the full New York Times piece on line at

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/dining/19peta.html

and the video on line at

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/turkey_investigation

I do hope anybody considering eating turkey for Thanksgiving will watch it. My

neighbor, heading towards vegetarianism but not sure what to do about

Thanksgiving turkey, actually screamed out loud as he watched a worker's

boot come down on a turkey's skull. But as Gretchen Wyler used to say,

"We must not refuse to see with our eyes, what they must endure with their

bodies." We have a moral obligation to make the effort to make informed choices.

Of special interest in the New York Times is the opening line. Indeed, the

release of these undercover videos has become an annual Thanksgiving rite; this

operation is no aberration. PETA does not have the resources to put loads of

undercover workers on various turkey farms or in turkey slaughterhouses trying

to find "a bad one." Yet every year an undercover investigator goes

into one of the major producers and comes out with video like this. In

"Thanking the Monkey" I discuss some of the videos, including one that

shows a worker doing his boxing punching bag practice on the live turkeys moving

past him, who are helplessly hung up by their legs headed for slaughter. You can respond to the New York Times article with a letter to the editor sent

to letters

But far better, this week, why not send a letter to the editor at your local

paper, thereby letting people in your town know about the video that the New

York Times covered last week? You can guide them to check it out. And if you

are preparing a veggie feast you can write merrily about that as well. Newsweek has covered the Thanksgiving turkey issue in its November 19 edition

(Society section), looking not at the cruelty aspects but at table dynamics when

vegetarians join turkey eaters. The article, by Sarah Kliff, is headed, "A

Recipe For a Family Fight:

At Thanksgiving, vegetarians and vegans object to the menu (and the heckling),

while other relatives feel family traditions are being scorned."

You'll find it on line at http://www.newsweek.com/id/169906 & GT1=43002

It presents a great opportunity for letters to the editor giving some of the

background, the reasons one might refuse to eat turkey (for example the recent

New York Times coverage of the PETA undercover video) which are not discussed in

the article. Or you might just write a letter appreciative of Newsweek's

coverage of the issue. It is great to see vegetarianism get so much mainstream

coverage, and positive feedback encourages more of it.

Newsweek takes letters at letters

If you have any trouble finding the email address for a letter to your local

editor, feel free to ask me for help.

Always 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.

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

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Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews of Karen Dawn's new

book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals” and

watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.

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