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| USA Today |
Thanksgiving is perhaps the true All-American holiday. Now yes, the Canadians celebrate it too, but we all know they just copied it. One of the central traditions of this holiday of course is the turkey. A large, rather unattractive, bird that it turns out is not particularly delicious. Now I of course have never had it but that is what I hear. The stats do indicate that too however. It is estimated that about 21% of turkeys were consumed on Thanksgiving (The National Turkey Federation - yes there really is such a thing). Add 10% on Christmas and another 10% on Easter, and a good 40% is consumed over 4-5 days! If this bird was so good, surely it would be consumed a lot more the rest of the year (compare 2.5 million tons of turkey consumed in 2011 in the US vs. over 14 million tons of chicken). Okay, but that is not entirely the point of this post.
Along with eating turkey, another time honored American tradition is the national pardoning of a chosen turkey. On Tuesday, President Obama pardoned two turkeys who will have the rare privilege of living out a full life (Obama pardons Cobbler - BBC). I find such a tradition comical and another classic example of hypocrisies and of course, the inscrutable human. The National Turkey Federation, presents the President with these turkeys all while promoting the slaughter of some 250 million others! Everyone involved recognizes how lucky the chosen bird is while completely forgetting that the "luck" of another bird is equally in their hands. For some so-called tradition (and I am all for traditions), we go about causing unnecessary suffering and death. And as the pardoning charade shows, everyone appreciates the suffering and death. But once again, this country will turn a blind eye to the 45,999,998 turkeys that will die and end up on people's plates tonight.
