Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
PETA Thanksgiving: Obama Asked To Go Vegan, Turkey Ad Gets Banned
Share:
by Yuliya Talmazan | November 25, 2009 at 10:36 am
3718 views | 3 Recommendations | 10 comments
Thanksgiving dinner has always been centered around eating turkey. It is a meal rooted in tradition, but America's largest animal rights protection group is calling for people to go vegan this Thanksgiving. Ahead of Thanksgiving, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has released its holiday message, asking people to think about how turkeys end up on their Thanksgiving dinner tables. PETA claims more than 45 million turkeys are killed to "disgrace" Thanksgiving tables every year. In its Thanksgiving statement, PETA made a point that this year its Thanksgiving TV ad was banned by certain NBC stations. Like most PETA commercials, the ad is quite shocking, albeit not graphic. In the ad, a family gathers around turkey dinner and a little girl is asked to say grace around dinner table. Instead, the girl goes on to tell how turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving while her family members are evidently disgusted by what she is saying. The ad was not allowed to run by four NBC affiliate stations during their coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thanksgiving day. According to certain reports, NBC did not see PETA claims as being substantiated enough in the ad. It asked for more information supporting the claims of the mistreatment of turkeys that PETA alleged.
This year, as President Obama is doing his first turkey pardon at the White House, PETA's chief asked the President and his family to opt out for a vegan dinner. The President and co-founder of PETA Ingrid Newkirk sent an open letter to President Obama where she asks Obama to send this year's pardoned turkeys to a credible sanctuary, acknowledge the millions of Americans who opt out for vegan dinners, and invite PETA's chef to present a delicious cruelty-free Thanksgiving meal for him and his family.
As you may well know, Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be America's national bird. Franklin noted how courageous turkeys are, and today's animal behaviorists say that turkeys are indeed smart as well as loving, protective parents who will even sing along to classical music. However, turkeys raised on filthy factory farms are bred and drugged to grow so large so fast that they often suffer from painfully splintered leg bones and other debilitating conditions. During PETA's undercover investigations of some of our country's largest turkey factory farms, we have documented workers as they stomped on birds' heads, struck birds with pipes and pliers, and slammed birds against walls.
For years, the "pardoned" turkeys have been sent to places where they were neglected. Many are dead within a year of being pardoned. This year, please send the turkeys to a credible sanctuary that has experts in turkey behavior and care, like metropolitan Washington's own Poplar Springs Farmed Animal Sanctuary, where Sasha and Malia would be able to visit them, along with other rescued animals, and learn why it is important to be compassionate to animals.
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (10)
at 05:35 on November 26th, 2009
Not everyone is either vegetarian nor vegan. If I went a day without eating meat I'd get physically sick because it's a part of my diet. I see where PETA is coming from and their root reason but I do not agree! Americans as a whole have different diets according to their physical conditions concerning health, their fitness goals and even just their culture. Why turkey? It's one of the longest traditions in American history during Thanks Giving. In many cultures the turkey is a celebrated dish on the dinner table. So in essence how ever small or big the gesture is you have your vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters... PETA can't and never will break tradition that's been going on longer than the organization's time.
at 13:01 on November 26th, 2009
the person below me is an ignorant moron... i, and most other vegans, were hardcore meat eaters our whole lives until we thought about it. Most people dont think... at all... let alone about what they are eating. When i went vegan i went "cold turkey." No pun intended and I haven't expierienced one negative effect in over a year... never got physically sick... ever. You are not a nutritionist... nor have you done one minute of research. Keep watching the news. Its obviously doing you a huge amount of good.
at 07:25 on November 26th, 2009
The reason NBC banned the PETA commercial is because its affiliates in NC, SC and Arkansas, the heart of turkey corporate factory-farming country, protested the easily verifiable facts laid out by the little girl in the PETA commercial. If anyone wants proof of the cruel treatment of factory-farmed turkeys, just visit a factory farm and you'll see what goes on. But NBC corporate executives don't want to get their suits bloodied or be confronted with the truth, so it won't happen, and they get to ban the very well-done commercial (PETA, you outdid yourself this year). But like all banned PETA commercials, it's getting far more viewers than it would have gotten, on YouTube and in many other on-line venues, had it run during the T'giving Day Parade without fanfair. And that's exactly what PETA is aiming for! It's a publicity-savvy group.
at 07:28 on November 26th, 2009
An easier way to see the atrocities committed to farmed animals is to go to YouTube or the PETA web site or the Farm Sanctuary website or United Poultry Concerns website, and watch the undercover factory farm videos available there. Anyone who claims that PETA is just making up the facts is willfully ignorant and lazy.
at 08:36 on November 26th, 2009
"PETA can't and never will break tradition that's been going on longer than the organization's time."Hahaha. I assume that's what the white man said about woman's rights, child labour, and black slavery.Oh but times do change, and eating animals will change. The animal rights movement is gaining momentum and finding its way into mainstream news and media, and people are going vegan every day for so many reasons that have no room for tradition; health, the environment, and respect for all living things. Great commercial, it's a shame it was banned.
at 18:27 on November 26th, 2009
Check out this uplifting and inspiring video on why people choose vegan: veganvideo.org/Also see Gary Yourofsky: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bagt5L9wXGo
at 21:38 on November 26th, 2009
I find it highly ironic that 2 or 3 nights ago, the Obamas had a mainly veg State Dinner and then today will eat the flesh of murdered animals. So much for compassion towards all living beings.
at 03:29 on November 27th, 2009
What a brilliant ad - I happened to see it on Canadian TV - but am not certain if I was watching a US network or a Canadian cable station. It ran in British Columbia. Then I went to your web site for further information. Change is possible: Yes We Can!
at 10:00 on November 27th, 2009
Some are ignorant to the fact that, in the past, meat was often a luxury, not a staple. It was only during the last century we developed a process for mass creation and storage of animals for slaughter. No one is going to perish from not eating meat. There are many hungry people in the world that could benefit from eating the massive amount of grain we are feeding livestock. Shame on us and our selfishness.
at 05:05 on December 30th, 2009
A vegan diet is so easy to follow, especially these days, it should just be called a food diet. A diet made up of food, not misery. I'm tired of the word vegan but I know it's necessary (at least, for the time being) to label a specific type of eating which happens to be the only real basis for a healthy diet, in my opinion, or a remotely humane outlook on life. I really believe it will catch on and meat-eating/meat-eaters will phase out/die off. We'll look back on this like a bad dream, whereas I regularly have these awesome dreams where veganism is being enforced, then I wake up and I'm like "Shit!" Indian cooking is so exciting, with all the subtle differences in technique and layering of flavors...and yet it is not difficult at all and it is the easiest type of cooking to make vegan, in my experience. In fact, I rarely have to adjust. I just use canola instead of ghee and avoid the meat and cream based curries. I never miss meat, diary or eggs anymore. I'm too busy salivating about having crispy pan fried yellow split pea/peanut cakes in a coconut tamarind sauce...with maharashtrian garam masala (my favorite spice blend). Or a biryani of five different vegetables in a rich fried-onion/tomato sauce layered with saffron-loaded basmati. Each dinner, I usually like to center around a legume stew with either plain steamed basmati or flavored rice (or feature a biryani), then add two other vegetable curries which offer contrasting, relieving, refreshing flavors. Rotis can easily be vegan, as can poori (delicious breads for collecting your legumes and vegetables with!) Vegan cooking, boring? (I've actually heard people say that!) Uhh....I think not. Quite the contrary. One learns to be a way better cook in general, staying vegan, because you rely more on technique and attentiveness to your dishes than products about which so many people are like, "Oh, well, I'll like it, as long as it has beef or chicken or pork," or, "Oh, hell, I'd eat my own shit if it had enough cheese on it or it was floating in a glass of milk." Ha...um...sorry, got carried away, but I think it's only a slight exaggeration, really.