Bravo for Noah

I was touched to view the inspired drawing of a happy turkey roaming free at a sanctuary, gracing the cover of the Holiday Guide [Nov. 20 Xpress]. I was further moved by the poignant words of 6-year-old artist Noah Salzman, who described his creation as “A turkey roaming free, and not for dinner!” Bravo, Noah!

Children come into this world with a natural love and affinity for animals. If more kids knew the truths that young Mr. Salzman obviously knows regarding the extreme cruelty routinely inflicted upon over 250 million turkeys raised for slaughter annually in the United States, they’d have to be dragged to the holiday dinner table kicking and screaming.

Imagine just how disturbed most children would be to discover that turkeys raised for slaughter are typically crammed into overcrowded warehouses, unable to move comfortably … toes and beaks cut off—without anesthesia. Genetically altered to grow twice as fast and double the weight of their kin from yesteryear, these obese animals often suffer painful debilitations of their legs … .

At a mere 14 weeks of age or so, the young birds are transported to slaughter in all temperature extremes … roughly handled and crammed into crates … legally allowed to be transported up to 36 hours without water, food or rest.

At the slaughterhouse, turkeys and chickens … often are improperly stunned, resulting in many birds having their throats slit or being scalded alive in feather-removal tanks, all while still fully conscious … . Some slaughterhouses don’t even try to stun these animals, as turkeys and other poultry are specifically excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act!

Go to www.MercyForAnimals.org and see for yourself the hideous hidden truth of the poultry industry … in Raeford, N.C., at [the House of Raeford]—the seventh-largest poultry-processing plant in the nation.

Start a new holiday tradition by helping provide care for a rescued turkey at Farm Sanctuary rather than eating one. Simply call 1-888-SPONSOR or visit www.AdoptATurkey.org for details.

— Kayla Rae Worden
WNC Regional Coordinator
Mercy For Animals
Weaverville

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11 thoughts on “Bravo for Noah

  1. Johnny

    Adopting domestic turkeys to live out their lives on some sanctuary is completely ludicrous.

    Turkeys are raised because of market demand. If you really want to stop turkey eating, then stop eating turkey. The market forces will come into play, and less birds will be raised.

    If you’re concerned about animal welfare, then buy turkeys that were raised humanely. If that’s not enough, then don’t eat the birds at all, but folks get on here with these holier than thou comments about eating meat and find in reality no moral high ground to stand on whatsoever.

  2. xvelouria

    How is protecting a living creature from a life of suffering, followed by a horrible death, “completely ludicrous”??

    Of course turkeys are raised because of market demand. Clearly the author of this post is attempting to reduce the market demand by suggesting to Xpress readers that they think twice about the lives that the turkeys had before they end up dead on the dinner plates.

    How is it “holier-than-thou” to speak up for what you truly believe in? And if I’m on some moral high ground by suggesting to people that they shouldn’t eat animals and animal products, with the result of some of my friends and acquaintances eating less meat or even going vegetarian or vegan, well jeez, I guess I’m proud of it. The weather’s great up here. :)

  3. Kayla

    No one can make you be a compassionate person, Johnny. To those whose hearts are open, I hope you’ll go to http://www.mercyforanimals.org and get your free vegetarian starter kit today. You’ll be saving lives every day by going veg. And you’ll make a meaningful difference in the life of a rescued bird by adopting a turkey at http://www.farmsanctuary.org.

    Thanks for caring and Happy Holidays!

  4. Johnny

    If 7% of domestic birds are saved this way, then industry will produce 7% more birds for people who want to eat them. Pretty simple. If you don’t order a turkey, then the market knows that and doesn’t respond accordingly the following year.

    Save one bird this year, and another bird is raised in its place.

    That’s the “holier-than-thou” part — when you say that no one can make me a compassionate person. Hilarious. The judgement that I am not compassionate because I eat meat.

    Make your own decisions, and I respect them, but to come out implying that bad people eat meat is kinda funny.

  5. travelah

    Kayla,
    Is it fair to state that your objection is not just with commercial poultry production but with eating the meat regardless of how it is raised?

  6. xvelouria

    “If 7% of domestic birds are saved this way, then industry will produce 7% more birds for people who want to eat them. Pretty simple. If you don’t order a turkey, then the market knows that and doesn’t respond accordingly the following year. ”

    Okay. So what are you saying? That individual lives don’t matter? If we have the opportunity, we shouldn’t save a couple turkeys from death because more will be put in their places?

    Anyway, Johnny, your arguments seem to change tone quite a bit between your first and second comments. Do you remember…”Turkeys are raised because of market demand. If you really want to stop turkey eating, then stop eating turkey. The market forces will come into play, and less birds will be raised. “??? Kinda hard to gain the upper hand with such blatant flip-flopping.

    An open question to everyone: What are your reasons for eating animals?

  7. Johnny

    xv — I think the comments are a consistent interpretation of how the market works. Buy 100 this year, and you’re telling the market to keep raising “x” amount PLUS 100 next year, and then you’re locked in to having these overly domesticated birds that can’t do anything for themselves raised year after year. They’ll get cared for by some intern, never get to reproduce, and die in a few years. Why bother? Just don’t eat them to begin with, and by doing so you TELL the market to stop raising one for you. And, by telling the market that information, you would save the bird from going through whatever hell it goes through before it was saved by the turkey saver group, because it never got hatched to begin with.

    Of all the animal rights campaigns or activities, I find this purchasing domestic turkeys to be saved from slaughter to be the most ludicrous.

    If you stop eating yogurt, you’ll tell the market to stop raising cows and killing their male calves as day-olds or as veal. If you purchase yogurt but don’t eat it, you don’t tell the market anything about your intentions, and you don’t prevent killing.

    Same with turkey.

  8. xvelouria

    I think you’re a little confused.

    1) I thought it was clear from the beginning that both Kayla and I are opposed to eating OR buying turkeys. Rescued birds and other farm animals are not obtained by purchasing them. From Farm Sanctuary’s website: “Some of our animals are rescued during our investigations of farms, stockyards, auctions, and slaughterhouses; others arrive from humane societies and SPCA cruelty cases. ”

    And so on. We’re not purchasing animals from the people who breed, raise, and slaughter them for profit. As you said, that WOULD be ludicrous.

    Hope that clears things up… :)

  9. travelah

    xv,
    The best reason I have for eating meat is because I am a great cook and I have found that Italian sausage just can’t be beat for flavor in a slow simmering sauce. I also find a veal cutlet, breaded and sautéed, over a bed of Cajun rice and gravy to be heavenly.

  10. I eat meat because I like the look on the zealots faces as I tear into the flesh.

    Actually, my wife is vegan. I don’t know why I eat meat. I eat locally raised meat whenever possible. At the end of the day, I think that animals are animals, and humans are humans. We are hunters. We hunt.

    What’s better in the long run: me eating a parts of a cow or chicken that was raised locally, or you eating spinach that was brought in from a couple of miles out in a diesel truck? Who’s hurting what more? I don’t know.

    But hey, if not killing fluffy makes you feel like a better person, than more power to you. I’ll be eating the brisket in the meantime.

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