Thanksgiving: The Truth Regarding Free-Range Turkeys
25 November 2009
by Angel Flinn, Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org
AnaiRhoads.org -- As Thanksgiving Day draws near, millions of concerned consumers around America begin to ask themselves the question of how to make their holiday meal more 'humane.' For many families, the answer to this dilemma will appear to be the purchase of a 'free-range' turkey. As consumers are becoming more aware of conditions on factory farms, the poultry industry now estimates that nearly two percent of American homes eat free-range turkeys during the holiday season.
But what does this label really mean, and are consumers simply being duped into paying more money for products that do not really represent a significant difference in terms of the lives and welfare of the animals concerned?
First of all, let's look at the most basic assumption we tend to have about any product bearing the label 'free-range', which is the idea that the animal in question was raised in conditions that allowed him or her to roam freely in an open area.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the only condition for free-range birds is that they have access to the outdoors. However, the size of the outdoor area is unregulated, so it is often nothing more than a tiny dirt lot. For birds raised during the winter months, there is no requirement for outside access at all.
As the USDA does not place a limit on free-range flock size, turkeys are often crowded together, and are frequently fenced in corrals, not running around the farm, as many consumers like to imagine. In some cases, thousands of turkeys are raised in a single warehouse-like structure, forced to live with accumulated fecal waste and ammonia fumes, just like their cousins, the egg-laying hens who produce 'cage-free' eggs.
Horrific mutilations, from debeaking to toe removal, are still allowed at free-range farms. These mutilations cause severe pain for the birds and can make eating and walking difficult. And just like conventionally-raised turkeys, free-range turkeys are genetically manipulated to grow at an unnaturally rapid rate, resulting in permanent health problems, including crippling joint disorders and heart failure. Premature death for free-range turkeys is common.
Perhaps most important is the astonishing fact that turkeys are exempt from legal protection under both the Humane Slaughter Act and the Animal Welfare Act. When they reach 'slaughter-age' after around 14 to 25 weeks, turkeys are transported, in all types of weather, in overcrowded wire cages, on multi-tiered, flat-bed trucks. When they arrive at the slaughterhouse, they are hung by their legs while still fully-conscious, and their throats are slashed.
Since the definitions for the 'free-range' label are deliberately vague and hundreds of millions of turkeys are considered nothing more than economic commodities to both owners and regulators, regulating the conditions for animals in any meaningful way is impossible. In order to obtain approval for the 'free-range' label, poultry producers must only provide the USDA with a brief description of the conditions for their birds, and their claims are very rarely verified by inspections.
This information might be disheartening for consumers who have turned to 'free-range' labels in the hopes of making an ethical choice, but it really should come as no surprise. As long as we continue to view animals as commodities, who exist to serve our desires and whose rights can be violated in the name of profit, they will continue to suffer, often unbearably, in a range of various confinement situations.
For a truly humane Thanksgiving, there is only one option, and that is to withdraw your order for the slaughter of a bird. No matter how your turkey was treated, whether raised indoors, outdoors, or in a botanical garden, he or she will have to be killed, to end up on your table.
As pointed out by Gary Steiner in Animal, Vegetable, Miserable, a superb Op-Ed piece published recently in the New York Times:
"None of these questions, however, make any consideration of whether it is wrong to kill animals for human consumption… We have been trained by a history of thinking of which we are scarcely aware to view non-human animals as resources we are entitled to employ in whatever ways we see fit in order to satisfy our needs and desires.
"Yes, there are animal welfare laws. But these laws have been formulated by, and are enforced by, people who proceed from the proposition that animals are fundamentally inferior to human beings. At best, these laws make living conditions for animals marginally better than they would be otherwise — right up to the point when we send them to the slaughterhouse… Think about that when you’re picking out your free-range turkey, which has absolutely nothing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. All it ever had was a short and miserable life, thanks to us intelligent, compassionate humans."
Angel Flinn is a volunteer for Gentle World, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for humans and animals by educating the public as to the benefits of a vegan diet and lifestyle. Her work is featured on AnaiRhoads.org, Care2.com, and on her vegan blog - The Vegan Solution.
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