Turkey is not a great meat; no matter how it’s cooked it seems to always be dry and bland. It’s not a great staple to look forward to each holiday season. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, the main dish always seems to be turkey, and frankly I am tired of it.
Every Thanksgiving, so many turkeys are slaughtered for the sole purpose of American families coming together to sit down and celebrate the holiday. The sad thing is not a lot of the turkey gets eaten. It’s such a large bird that there’s usually a lot of leftovers, meaning most of the meat ends up getting shoved to the back of the freezer, never to be seen again.
On another note, turkeys are very sweet animals when they are domesticated and have many human interactions, having been seen enjoying cuddles and pets. But when wild, they can be very territorial and do not enjoy human company.
This can cause farmers to treat turkeys unethically because they are easily agitated animals, and due to the fact that turkeys can be territorial, they even debeak and declaw the turkeys. The farmers don’t see it as animal cruelty because they are just going to die anyway, but imagine having to live in a crowded area with hundreds of other turkeys, mutilated.
Other than the animals being cruelly treated before they are slaughtered, there is also a risk of the environment being negatively affected. Examples of this are pollution from animal waste and demands for the turkey taking up vast amounts of land, which leads to water pollution and deforestation.
A tip if you do plan on getting turkey anytime soon is to know where you’re getting it from because turkey can often carry diseases you don’t want to risk contracting. Going to a local farm that treats animals humanely is the best way to know what you’re getting and eating. It’s always better on the soul knowing that the turkey you are eating lived a good life.
