REFLECTIONS ON THANKSGIVING, 2015

“Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God.”

                                                ~ Cardinal John Henry Newman 

                Thanksgiving is a difficult time for vegans.  We love a good feast with family and friends as much as the next person, but the great fuss made over the turkey is hard to take.  We know that more than 46 million birds will die for Thanksgiving.  We know that nearly all of them come from factory farms, where they have been bred to be mere caricatures of the birds God created, with breasts so big they cannot mate naturally and with such a fast growth rate that they often suffer serious leg and joint problems.  They have often had their beaks and toes cut off without anesthesia to keep them from harming other birds due to the overcrowded, stressful, and dirty conditions in which they live.  We know that as birds, under US law, they are not even afforded the minimal protections of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act in the slaughter process.  And we know that the slaughter process is terrifying and often badly done, resulting in significant suffering.  We know that year after year, investigations of turkey farms have revealed horrific treatment of these gentle birds, even when they are supposed to have been “humanely raised.” 

               We also know that turkeys, when allowed to live in peace, are intelligent, social, affectionate birds, that they are loved by the God who created them, and that their suffering matters.  It is extremely difficult for us to understand, therefore, how participating in cruelty toward them can in any way, shape, or form be related to giving thanks to God for His great mercies toward us.  

Wild turkey

Butterball turkey, photo by Mercy For Animals

     Making it harder still is the fun made of the whole thing.  Cartoon turkeys use anthropomorphism to  make light of a turkey’s desire to live - or even to suggest they are eager to participate in the Thanksgiving "fun."  Presidential "pardons" of turkeys celebrate lightheartedly the saving of two lives while drawing a veil over the millions not so lucky.  All this "fun" allows our culture to entirely disregard real turkeys’ actual desire to live, to be free from fear and discomfort, and to know companionship and contentment.  These actions anesthetize people entirely from the cruelty of our actions as we prepare to gather around the table to talk about the many mercies they have received.   

                Many vegans then have to face a gathering centered on a dead turkey, while our family and friends chuckle indulgently at our desire to not to participate in cruelty - or worse, are easily offended if we “spoil the fun” or “get on our high horse” by saying no thank you to much the food on offer. 

                But Thanksgiving, precisely because it is so centered on eating meat, can offer an opportunity to open discussion about food choices (although, sitting at the dinner table is probably not the most diplomatic time to do so, I hasten to add!).  One way we can do that without “spoiling the fun” in the days and weeks before the holiday is to talk about what we plan to eat and share recipes.  With all the talk of turkeys and food this time of year, other opportunities tend to pop up, too.  I had a conversation with a colleague several weeks ago in which he talked about reading a story to his small daughter about a family that goes to a farm to visit the turkey they are going to eat at Thanksgiving.  Happily, in the end the family decides not to eat the bird, which my colleague advised was a good thing because his daughter was very upset about the idea of the turkey in the story being killed.  I asked him what he planned to tell her when turkey appeared on their Thanksgiving table.  We talked about how children learn where meat comes from and I pointed out to him that - especially for a sensitive child who loves animals like his daughter - teaching them about meat is the first time we teach them not to be compassionate, that it is appropriate to make others suffer.  “I never thought about it that way,” he said.  I hope that a small seed might have been planted.

Recipe at onegreenplanet.org

                We can also celebrate the joy of recognizing other animals, including turkeys, as individuals by participating in events at farm sanctuaries, which often have gatherngs open to the public this time of year where turkeys are the guests of honor and given special meals.  It is refreshing and restorative to join in these activities and to be surrounded by other people who recognize the value of our fellow creatures, and to see that at least some of these animals are able to enjoy the life they deserve.  We can even “adopt” a turkey from places like Farm Sanctuary and tell our friends about our special bird to help them begin to consider turkeys as individuals.

                Finally, this year especially, we can be thankful for all the progress being made on behalf of animals by so many organizations and dedicated people.  Gestation grates and battery cages are well on their way to the dustbin of history.  Meat consumption in the US is declining.  Shelter adoptions and spay/neuter rates are up and puppy mills are closing down.  Several cities have banned circuses with wild animal acts.  Vegan food is easier to find than ever.  There is, indeed, a very long way to go for animals, but we have made a very good start on the journey. 

Photo by Ken Godfrey

                I am extremely grateful to God for the people along the way who helped to open my eyes to the cruelty I was supporting and who have helped me find - and continue to find - new ways of being in the world that allow me to live the way I want to live - the way I believe God intends us all to live: with compassion toward all other creatures, with the ability to contribute to their flourishing rather than their suffering, and with eyes to see the wonder of who they are and what they have to teach me just by being who they were created to be. 

                I only wish that even one of those people had been someone within the faith community.  The idea that we are to live, insofar as we are able, with compassion and mercy and that we are to show grace to those around us where we can seems to me so fundamental to who we are created to be and how we are intended to live and move in the world (and therefore so foundational to the teachings of Christianity) that I cannot help but remain dumbfounded at the silence of the church on this subject.  It is Gene Bauer from Farm Sanctuary who taught me to ask, “If you can live well without harming others, why wouldn’t you?”  It is truly a loss when those in the secular community have more to teach us about living life graciously and mercifully than those inside the church.  So, my prayer will continue to be that the eyes and the ears of the church will be opened.  There is good work being done on this front by many, including several scholars and authors, and for that I am also grateful.  Perhaps next year I will be giving thanks for movement on this issue from the pulpit.

You've got a friend in me
This man LOVES Turkey ( ... and Turkey loves him) <3
Posted by Animals Australia on Thursday, November 19, 2015