Groups urge buyers to shun factory farm turkeys

GARDINER, N.Y. -- Dismayed by the practices of large commercial turkey farms, animal-welfare groups are intensifying their appeals to consumers to reconsider their Thanksgiving menus.

Options can range from vegetarian meals -- including turkey-shaped tofu loaves -- to free-range turkeys that roam pastures of small, family-run operations like Four Winds Farm in the Catskills town of Gardiner.

"Our turkeys have only one bad day," said Polly Armour, referring to the pre-Thanksgiving slaughter that she and her husband, Jay, perform with a razor-sharp knife at a barn on their 24-acre organic farm.

"The rest of the time, they're outdoors, doing what they want," she said. "They can eat the grass, eat the bugs. They can flap their wings."

Farms like the Armours' are what the Humane Society of the United States has in mind as it urges consumers to forego the supermarket turkeys grown indoors at so-called factory farms.

"We're not trying to rain on anyone's holiday," said Wayne Pacelle, the Humane Society's senior vice president. "But people must know ... turkeys have been transformed from a sleek, adaptive wild animal into a Frankenstein monster, so obese it can barely stand."

'We're an easy target'

The industry defends its mass-production techniques as necessary to provide plump turkeys at affordable prices. The National Turkey Federation denies any systematic cruelty by its member producers and says per capita turkey consumption is holding steady at 18 pounds annually despite escalating protests.

"We're an easy target at this time of the year, because everyone in the United States is focusing on Thanksgiving," said Sherrie Rosenblatt, the federation's spokeswoman. "It's un-American not to have turkey at Thanksgiving."

Indeed, the holiday is vital to producers' livelihoods, accounting for about a sixth of the 270 million turkeys consumed annually in the United States.

Rosenblatt said large-scale producers are as committed as family farmers to turkeys' contentment because high stress affects the birds' ability to eat and gain weight.

"We always want to promote and protect our product," Rosenblatt said. "When some group goes out and creates misinformation that could change consumer behavior, it's something we need to be concerned about."

While the Humane Society tries to steer consumers away from factory-farm products, other groups want Americans to forsake turkey meat altogether, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Farm Sanctuary.

"For us vegetarians, Thanksgiving can be a pretty dismal time of year," said Farm Sanctuary co-founder Lorri Bausten. "One reason people can be so cruel is that they don't see turkeys as living, breathing animals, the way they do their dogs or cats."

PETA's suggestion for a meatless Thanksgiving menu: soy-based roasts and a puff pastry stuffed with cranberries, chard, flavored wheat gluten, yams and onions.