Machipongo, Va. - Poultry Concerns (UPC) will leaflet for turkeys on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House on Thursday, November 15 from Noon to 4 p.m. We will urge people to bypass the turkey on Thanksgiving Day and pioneer new traditions in the kitchen.

Turkeys are raised in filth on factory farms. They are painfully debeaked and detoed without anesthetic to offset the destructive effects of overcrowding. According to North Carolina State University professor, William Donaldson, “Very few animals go through the stresses of poults [baby turkeys] in their first three hours of life.” Someone clips three toes off each foot, debeaks them, and delivers a powerful injection of antibiotics in the back of their necks. He writes: “Essentially they have been through major surgery. They have been traumatized.”

By contrast, wild young turkeys roam the woods and fields with their mother, whom Audubon called “their kind and careful parent.” She shelters her young ones under her wings at night and gathers them beneath her wings for warmth and comfort during the day.

Turkeys are lively, inquisitive birds who are stripped of comfort and joy in industrialized farming. They live miserably in dark, dirty buildings thick with bacteria and toxic gases before they are killed. Turkeys are given painful electric shocks at the slaughterhouse and they are not protected by humane slaughter laws.

UPC urges White House visitors and others to discover the joy of turkey-free cooking and dining this year. We urge people to be kind to turkeys and eat a Tofurky instead. Information about turkeys and UPC’s Open House on Saturday November 24th can be found on UPC’s Website at http://www.upc-online.org.

For more information, please contact Karen Davis, President of United Poultry Concerns, at 757-678-7875.