An Early Thanksgiving Treat

In this morning’s New York Times, Sharon Waxman reports (in At One Paper, All Tension is Local) that there is major upheaval (e.g., walk-outs an even an employee rally) regarding choices made by the owner of The Santa Barbara News-Press, Wendy P. McCaw.

My interest was piqued when I read: "Known as a libertarian, environmentalist, animal-rights activist and vegetarian, she rarely is seen in the newsroom."

Hmmmm. Tell me more.

"Mrs. McCaw has expressed strong views via the editorial page, about issues from property rights to the preservation of wild pigs in the nearby Channel Islands. Sometimes her views raised eyebrows, as when an editorial called for people to donate rice and beans, rather than turkeys, to the poor on Thanksgiving."

Ah, where to begin . . .

1. This is California we’re talking about. Why would it raise brows to suggest donating rice and beans to the poor on Thanksgiving.
2. The libertarian animal-rights activist thing is impossible, as far as I know, because the libertarian position assumes that only adult humans have full rights (because of their reasoning abilities) and one of those rights is the right to torture.
3. Turkeys

• 260-300 million turkeys are raised for slaughter every year in the US alone.
• Few ever see the light of day as they are factory farmed.
• The average turkey has been genetically engineered to grow twice as fast and twice as large as a natural turkey, and with abnormally large breasts.
• The journey to slaughter begins with being stacked in the back of a truck and transported for hours, in extreme weather conditions, when some die of heat stress or freeze to death.
• They have no food or water.
• Fully conscious, they are hung by their feet from metal shackles.
• Their heads are submerged in electrified bath water.
• Some aren’t rendered unconscious, some are.
• Regardless, their throats are slashed with a mechanical blade.
• They proceed to the scalding tank, and some are still alive.
• 45 million are killed for Thanksgiving alone.

If you’d like some grisly visuals and more facts, click here, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Each year, I get solicitations from one particular nonprofit, asking for the donation of cash or a turkey for  NATIVE AMERICANS who cannot afford a turkey for Thanksgiving. Each year, I write a letter saying I’m happy to donate veggies, rice, and beans, but I will not participate in the annual slaughter of turkeys. And then I ask them what the Native American stand is regarding factory farming, because I don’t for a moment think they’re going to Whole Foods to get free-range turkeys for their clients. Clearly, they don’t read their mail.

Here are the base issues:

1. Giving thanks is great. But celebrating with a carcass? That’s creepy.
2. As you might imagine, many Native Americans don’t share our celebratory mood regarding the arrival of those who "discovered" this land. "To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture" (click here for the entire article I took the quote from).

Getting to write about this during the summer is like Christmas for me; it’s a gift. Now’s the time to introduce the cruelty-free Celebration of Thanks: less filling, more rewarding.