Today is the day of the annual pre-Thanksgiving presidential photo op, in which the President of the United States gets his picture taken with a turkey or two. Contrary to what you might read in news stories, the first president to issue an official pardon that spared the turkey's life was President George H.W. Bush, in 1989. Before that, the turkey was just as likely to be the main course at the White House Thanksgiving dinner.
Since 2005 the pardoned turkeys have been sent to either Disneyland or Disney World to be grand marshals in a Thanksgiving parade. This year's official White House turkey, Courage, and the emergency backup turkey, Carolina, will be sent to the California park and will live out their days in Frontierland.
Some animal welfare activists argue that the fragile birds ought to be sent to a farm sanctuary instead. Domestic turkeys are bred to die young. They are overweight creatures with weakened immune systems, and even the pampered presidential turkeys usually die within six months of their "reprieve."
I wrote last year about the barbarity of modern turkey raising practices. Often these birds spend their entire brief lives in pens, unable to engage in natural turkey behaviors. They quickly become too fat to walk.
Although in most schools of Buddhism vegetarianism is not a requirement, we are all called upon to alleviate suffering whenever possible. The Humane Society asks us to reduce the suffering of animals raised for meat, eggs and milk by following the "Three Rs":
- Reduce our animal consumption.
- Refine our diet by switching to higher welfare animal products (e.g., cage-free).
- Replace animal products with readily available vegetarian options.
For the adventurous -- instructions for making tofu turkey.
I like the consumer based action.
I’m not sure that a tofu turkey is “adventurous” exactly, but it certainly would be… something?!
Regarding eating meat, I have eaten meat for most of my life.
I only changed this practice, after taking up Buddhism. I have enough land to grow my own food, so I do. Chickens are an important part of that, for eggs and making compost. Feral cats are a problem. So I Trap them and kill them. Twelve this year, I don’t like Doing this. When I found a chicken was too old I cooked it. This is a much more honest than buying a dead bird ”raped in plastic” in a small way experiencing the kill is a religious experience. I plant the cats under the fruit trees.
As for ‘Tofu Turkey’ we have a thing like that in Australia. Its a sausage looking thing, looks good in the picture, but after cooking it, and trying to eat it. The thing tasted like a well roasted ”Toilet roll” If your going to eat meat, get the real thing and kill it your self. Does any one know how to cook cat? Mark,