Alleged Abuse at Butterball Turkey Farm

Once again, the wonderful Mercy for Animals provides footage of possible abuse of turkeys at a Butterball farm in North Carolina.

The full story is at CNN.

Adopt a Turkey Next Month

Farm Sanctuary has a cool "Adopt-a-Turkey" project. I definitely want to do this.

UK is No Paradise for Turkeys

Coming off of Thanksgiving in the US, I thought turkeys here had it rough. But it looks like turkeys in the UK don't have it much better. Such is the life of the corporate farm animal, I guess.

Most of the 17 million turkeys reared in the UK are subjected to poor welfare standards, the RSPCA warned.

The poultry industry's minimum standards are not good enough, according to the animal rights charity.

It says birds reared in the UK often are kept in cramped conditions which hampers their movement.

In addition, the majority of them are kept under very low lighting levels. This enables the birds to put on weight more quickly - but also puts them at risk of eye problems and even blindness, the RSPCA said.

Photo by Lee Turner.

Adopting Turkeys

Here is an interesting article in the NY Times about Farm Sanctuary and other groups that adopt turkeys.

It is one thing for the president of the United States to pardon a pair of turkeys every year and then send them off to live out their days in Florida. It’s quite another to save a turkey from the Thanksgiving table by inviting it to live with you.

Two weeks ago, Karen Oeh and her husband, Mike Balistreri, who live not far from Santa Cruz, Calif., adopted two turkeys that had been rescued after an airline shipping misfortune in Las Vegas.

“I am like a new parent,” said Ms. Oeh, 39. “I instantly, totally fell in love, and now I just want to stay home with them.”

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.

Here is a link to Farm Sanctuary.

Photo by Jeniphur99