A whopping 300 million turkeys are being killed each year just for Americans to enjoy and savor turkey for the holidays.

Benjamin Franklin had stated them as being true “American originals”. He had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty. Turkeys are intelligent animals who enjoy having their feathers stroked and who like listening to music, with which they will often loudly sing along. In nature, turkeys can fly 55 miles an hour, run 18 miles an hour, and live up to 10 years.

But all that is ignored on the dreadful turkey farms. Turkeys are killed in about half a year, being countered by the most simplest pleasures such as running, building nests, and raising young.

300 million turkeys are raised and killed for their flesh every year in the United States with no federal legal protection. More than 45 million turkeys are killed each year during Thanksgiving alone, while more than 22 million die during Christmas as holiday centerpieces. They are packed inside dark sheds with a space so small, adult turkeys can barely fit in it. The turkeys become genetically bred to grow as fast as possible, making them crippled due to their obesity.

To keep the crowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, workers cut off portions of the birds’ toes and upper beaks with hot blades. No pain relievers are used during any of these procedures, which means the turkey farm operators just don’t care. Surprisingly, this is completely legal since federal laws, including the Humane Slaughter Act, do not prohibit birds raised for food from being raised in cruel conditions.

At the slaughterhouse, the survivors are hung upside-down by their weak and crippled legs before their heads are dragged through an electrified “stunning tank,” which immobilizes but does not kill them. Many birds dodge the tank and are still completely conscious when their throats are slit. If the knife fails to properly cut the birds’ throats, they are scalded alive in the tank of boiling water used for feather removal. “It is unfair that so many turkeys have been kept from the wild. They never got to do anything but to get beaten and killed, considering their short lives”, said 7th grader Andrew Yao.  

While most Americans would likely say they would prefer an organic, free-range bird to a Butterball brand factory-farmed turkey that has been injected with growth hormones and antibiotics, the mass-produced birds are about $40 cheaper than organic, free-range options. Butterball turkeys are about $75 cheaper than Torfurky options, which is a vegetarian turkey option.

Many historians have noted that the first Thanksgiving meals included meat from swans, eagles, venison, eels and seals, yet none have continued to be on dinner tables in most American households for the holiday.

When you are thankful on Thanksgiving Day, be sure to remember the turkey not only because it was delicious, but because it had a life, too.