What’s There to be Thankful For?
The horrors of Thanksgiving for non-human animals, people, and the planet.
Thanksgiving is arguably the worst holiday we have here in the United States (with Fourth of July falling closely in second place). A “celebration” of murder, bloodshed, colonization, rape, gluttony, and torture, where we gather around a table and pretend to love one another for a few hours. With nothing to be truly grateful for in a time of genocide, poverty, oppression, and violence, why do we still practice this rancid tradition each year?
The Non-Human Animals
Those who argue that Thanksgiving is just a holiday about food and has no dirty historical association for them and their families still pile the animal products high on their plates each year. If they are against the initial violence that created this holiday, shouldn’t they also be against the violence that happens every year to keep this holiday’s tradition alive?
I’ve seen so many vegan and animal rights groups posting about turkeys in the past week in preparation for Thanksgiving, and of course it is crucial to highlight these incredible birds during this time, but it is so important to also mention the other non-human animals abused for this holiday.
Turkeys
The “star” of this retched holiday is, of course, the poor turkey at the center of nearly every dining table across America. According to the USDA, more than 46 million turkeys are killed and eaten just for Thanksgiving Day alone. Approximately 88% of Americans are suspected to consume the flesh of turkeys on this holiday. Here are all of the reasons why you should help bring that percentage down:
It is estimated that 99% of animals raised for food, including beautiful turkeys, are raised on factory farms. These facilities are no place for sentient beings. Turkeys are crowded together in sheds, commonly housing 10,000-14,000 birds per shed; this equates to six turkeys per square meter. These farms implement artificial lighting to manipulate their growth and reproductive cycles, meaning these birds grow so fast their legs are unable to carry the weight of their own bodies. Many experience broken legs, limping, and some lose the ability to move altogether. Unable to carry their own weight, they are also unable to naturally mate. Farmers implement artificial insemination; which entails masturbating male turkeys by hand, collecting their semen through a straw connected to their mouth, and injecting it into the female turkey’s cervix. Not to mention, workers commonly perform bestiality on turkeys.
Due to the overcrowding, many turkeys are forced to step over and on top of their shed-mates who have fallen behind, some being trampled to death. Within these facilities, turkeys are forced to live in their own fecal matter. Injuries are common when unnatural growth is forced, meaning a scratched leg, wing, or even face will become infected easily. Many of these turkeys do not make it to their 12 (female) and 16 (male) week farmed lifespan and die on the floor of these sheds, their bodies to be forgotten about by farmers and picked at by their shed-mates. The dead birds that are collected by the farmers are dumped into piles like garbage.
Photos Courtesy of Dominion (2018)Those who do make it to their intended farmed life-span are crammed into a truck and driven to the slaughterhouse, which can be up to a 36 hour journey without food, water, heat, air conditioning, or proper shelter. At the slaughterhouse, turkeys are often beaten into submission with kicks and punches or slammed into walls, and then shackled by their feet to hang upside-down onto the slaughter line. This line will drag their necks through electrical baths in an attempt to stun the birds before their throats are slit. However, many of these intelligent birds see the water coming and dodge out of the way, missing the electrical bath completely. This means that when the blade slices through their neck, they feel everything. They kick and flail their legs in an attempt to free themselves from the pain, but they can’t; all because people couldn’t choose something instead of someone for dinner.
Turkeys are incredibly smart and social birds. They can recognize and remember up to 30 human and non-human faces. They purr just like cats and love to be cuddled and caressed. Some turkeys even love to be sung to and prefer a lullaby to fall asleep. Turkeys are super fast, running up to speeds of 55 mph; that’s faster than most speed limits! On top of their incredible speeds, they also have excellent hearing and vision. Turkey’s have no external ears, but are able to hear up to a mile away, and their beautiful eyes have a whopping 270-degree field of vision and can even see in color! They are also very expressive beings, changing the colors on their head and necks to convey emotions and each turkey has their own unique personality. Turkeys can live up to 12 years. There’s no reason to torture these birds for a meal on any day, let alone a holiday to celebrate love and gratitude.
Cows
Although a cow’s flesh isn’t typically eaten on Thanksgiving, what comes out of cows is in nearly every side-dish served. Mashed potatoes with butter, gravy, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and mac and cheese are just some of the ways we exploit the female reproductive system for the most “thankful” day of the year.
Butter, cheese, and milk are all refrigerator staples for the vast majority of Americans, but do they know how these products make it to market? Like turkeys, cows are artificially inseminated by farmers to forcibly impregnate them. Female cows, like all mammals, can not produce milk (or butter, cheese, yogurt, etc.) without being pregnant or having recently given birth. Once their baby is born, he or she is ripped from their mother within a matter of days or even mere minutes to ensure farmers can sell the most amount of their mothers’ milk possible to humans. These babies are placed on other dairy farms if they are born female, or sent to veal or beef farms if they are born male. Female calves are thrown into the cycle their mothers are enslaved in of constant forced pregnancy, while male calves are either killed within a few days, months, or years depending on what their flesh will be used for.
To learn more about the dairy industry, please visit my page “Dairy” to see all of the horrors bovine creatures experience because people choose dairy butter over plant-based butter.
Cows have panoramic vision, meaning they can see around 300 degrees and even up to 360 degrees when they are grazing. They are quite the problem solvers. Like dogs, cats, and pigs, they can perform tasks in order to receive dinner or a snack! They love to play, especially with balls that they can kick around in fields. They’re also incredibly social, forming strong bonds with humans and other non-humans, adopt other babies when necessary, and love to cuddle! Cows have a natural lifespan of 15-20 years. Cows are the reason I went vegan; I love them with all of my heart. Hopefully you do, too.
Pigs
A pig’s flesh is most likely consumed on Thanksgiving in a sausage-based stuffing, but their fat and bones are also commonly gorged on for the holiday. So many people overlook desserts and side-dishes that have hidden cruelty, but hopefully you won’t any longer.
Do you have that strange aunt that always brings jello salad? I do. Hidden inside are the ground up bones of pigs, bovine creatures, and fish. That gravy that you were considering pouring over your butter-less mashed potatoes has the hot and slimy fat from a pig’s tendons (alongside the congealed and then melted breast milk of a cow). Do you top your sweet potato casserole with marshmallows? A pig’s collagen (their connective tissue) was ground up and squeezed into those tiny little sugar pillows.
Like all non-human animals who have the ability to become pregnant, pigs are artificially inseminated by farmers through manual masturbation and violent semen insertion. Commonly, pigs have been found to be the victims of bestiality by farmers; most notably Olivia, who was found to have been raped by a male piggery worker (the manager of the piggery’s son, Bradley O'Reilly). Piglets are born in the same farrowing crates their mother’s live nearly their entire lives confined to. These crates are so small, the sows are unable to take more than one step in front of themselves or behind, and are completely unable to turn around. 10-18% of pigs who are born alive do not make it to the weaning age. These piglets are commonly squished and killed accidentally by their own mothers as the crates are too small and the mothers end up lying on top of their babies. Many also suffocate in their family’s feces, as their crates are not cleaned and they are forced to live in their own waste. Because of their unsanitary living conditions, many also succumb to disease. Their dead bodies are not cleaned out by farmers and are often feasted upon by their brothers and sisters who receive inadequate water, and attention from the piggery workers. The runts of the litter are beaten to death by a common practice called “pig thumping.” Sick, injured, or inadequately sized piglets are held by their back legs and slammed on to the concrete floor in a cheap and easy way to kill them.
Those who survive their first few days on Earth have their (male) genitals, ears, and tails clipped off with scissors and their teeth either ripped out or clipped down to prevent cannibalism. This is all performed without anesthetic. Cannibalism is common within piggeries based on the inadequate space, food and stimulation pigs are given inside factory farms. They are taken from their mothers at just 3-5 weeks old and are placed into growing pens.
Photos Courtesy of Dominion (2018)In growing pens, pigs are crammed together, living in their own waste, with no access to proper stimulation, open space, fresh air, or adequate sunlight. Their waste gets in to their food and drinking water and clings to their bodies. Cannibalism is rampant despite efforts to prevent it. Pigs develop open sores on their behinds from their pen-mates chewing on them, which then get infected by the overwhelming amount of feces in their living space. Once large enough, typically at five months old, pigs are sent to slaughterhouses where they will be electrically prodded, whipped, kicked, slapped, punched, stabbed, and either gassed to death in a carbon-dioxide gas chamber or electrically stunned and then have their throats slit while hanging upside-down. Pigs are lowered into gas-chambers, often two or three at a time, while fully conscious. The gas burns their eyes, nostrils, sinuses, throat, and lungs, and suffocates them until they die. The pigs scream and flail, attempting to flee the chamber or access oxygen. Electrical stunning is slightly less traumatic, but less effective, meaning many pigs have their throat slit while completely conscious. There is no reason to consume pigs this Thanksgiving, any Thanksgiving, or any day.
Pigs are incredibly clean. When given adequate housing, pigs create their own restrooms away from their feeding, sleeping, and play areas. Pigs can’t sweat like many animals can (including us), so they roll around in mud to help cool themselves off. The mud also acts as a sunblock! They can smell amazingly well, up to 2,000 times better than us humans can. They are cute, cuddly, and have adorable smiles and are on the same intelligence level as a three-year-old human child. Pigs have a natural lifespan of around 12 years.
Chickens
A chicken’s flesh isn’t typically consumed on Thanksgiving, but their eggs certainly are. Stuffing, even when not shoved into the cloaca (anus) of a turkey, still has cruelty stuffed into every bite. Eggs are used as a binding agent for many dishes, but on Thanksgiving, eggs are most commonly used to bind stuffing.
Around 60% of egg laying hens live nearly their entire lives in battery cages; metal cages which are so small birds are unable to dust and flap or stretch their wings. Each cage often houses between 4 and 20 hens, with each shed containing up to 100,000 hens. Each hen is given less space than an A4 sheet of paper. Each shed does not allow access to sunlight, fresh air, or provide any stimulation for these highly intelligent animals. The small metal bars on the cages cause sores to develop on the hens’ feet, with many of their toenails growing so long they wrap around the bars, causing the hens to be permanently trapped to the same spot. Since these cages are stacked upon one another, the feces produced by birds in the top cages fall onto the heads of the birds below them, never to be cleaned. Many birds fall into the bottom feces collection pits, trapped for the rest of their short lives and left to die in filth.
For the 40% of egg laying hens who are not caged, their lives are not much better. Cage-free hens are still kept in sheds, crammed together by the thousands, without access to sunlight or the outdoors. They are only afforded one square meter of space per bird and disease runs rampantly. They, too, are unable to dust-bathe or express their natural behaviors. “Free-range” hens are also kept in the same sheds, but do have access, although extremely limited, to the outdoors. “Pasture-raised” requires a minimum of 108 square feet of outdoor space for birds and most of their time is spent outdoors, however, this only equates to less than 1% of commercial hens. But regardless of which method of raising you choose, cruel standard practices remain the same.
Egg laying hens have been genetically manipulated and selectively bred, causing them to lay between 1-2 eggs per day. A wild hen typically lays 12 eggs a year, only one egg per month. It’s incredibly difficult to lay more than one egg per day, and in an attempt to squeeze more out of them, farmers will manipulate the artificial lighting within the sheds to simulate two days in one. This constant egg production is so violent and detrimental on their small bodies that they begin to deteriorate at a rapid rate. They begin to lose all of their feathers either from stress-molting, starvation, or plucking and develop anemia.
Photos Courtesy of Dominion (2018)Deaths inside cages and sheds are common and often overlooked, forcing the surviving hens to live next to or on top of the rotting carcasses. Once hens are considered “spent,” meaning they no longer produce enough eggs fast enough in order to be considered profitable, they are “de-populated.” Hens are pulled from their cages or sheds and shoved into crates to be placed on to a slaughter truck. During this process, many hens suffer broken legs, wings, and other bones as they are violently crammed into the small crates. They are commonly gassed to death or shackled upside down on a moving line and lowered into a bath of electrified water to stun them. However, just like turkeys, hens commonly swing their necks out of the way and miss the bath completely, meaning they are fully conscious when their throat is slit by the motorized blade and then they ultimately drown in the scalding water further down the line.
To learn more about the egg industry, please visit my page “Eggs” to see what baby chicks go through during their first day on Earth and more.
The flesh of these hens are considered to be lower-quality, and end up in cheaper chicken products like mince or pet food, or even turned into animal feed to be fed back to farmed animals. Is all of this worth using an egg rather than vegan butter and cornstarch?
Chickens are incredibly social and smart. Chickens can memorize and recognize over 100 different faces of humans and non-human animals! Chickens reach REM when they sleep, meaning they dream (probably of living on a sanctuary instead of a horrid farm). Chickens have full-color vision and can even move each eye independently! Chickens also love their families and express empathy by caring for their babies even when inside the egg. Chickens have a natural lifespan of 8-15 years. Hopefully you’ll join me and the rest of us vegans in leaving eggs behind (your wallet will surely thank you!).
The People
As many gather around their yearly feast, they express their gratitude for the humans in their lives, their health, their wealth, and their happiness. How this has evolved from the massacre of Indigenous Peoples and their land will never make sense to me. How we choose to celebrate gratitude with violence astonishes me.
Native Americans
Thanksgiving is a day of mourning within the Indigenous community. This whitewashed holiday that stems from rape, murder, destruction, and devastation has told the fable of a peaceful and graciously shared meal between the nameless Native Americans and the white “settlers.”
As stated by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, “The ‘First Thanksgiving’ as a national story is incomplete and inaccurate. The whole history is more complex and includes the Wampanoag voice and perspective that have been largely absent from this narrative. The Wampanoag and neighboring Native nations were interacting with European explorers, traders, and enslavers for nearly one hundred years before English settlers arrived at the Wampanoag village of Patuxet in 1620. After careful observation, negotiations, and exchanges, the Wampanoag decided to assist the English settlers. However, their interactions had much more to do with political alliances and diplomacy than a budding friendship. Cooperation and peace were short-lived.”
According to Native Hope, after every killing of an entire Native village, the white colonizers would celebrate with a large feast. It wasn’t until 1863, over 240 years after the massacres, that Abraham Lincoln coined Thanksgiving as an official holiday to celebrate gratitude and solidify the whitewashed story. Abraham Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota men to be hung for war crimes the day after the Christian holiday of love, peace, and joy: Christmas. This event remains the largest mass-execution in US history.
Based on the horrors that have and continue to happen to Native American communities, Thanksgiving should be abolished.
“We remember the generosity of the Wampanoag tribe to the European settlers. We remember the hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who lost their lives because of the ignorance and greed of colonists and the genocide experienced by whole tribes. We remember the vibrant and resilient Native descendants, families, and communities that persist to this day throughout the culture and the country. We give thanks to people like Sharice Davids and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose hard work and diligence helped place them in positions where the Native American voice can be heard.” - Native Hope
Slaughterhouse and Factory Farm Workers
According to Sentient Media, turkey industry workers are paid around $18 per hour in meatpacking plants, slaughterhouses, and hatcheries. The workers, often former convicts, undocumented individuals, and at-risk People of Color, risk potential injuries and diseases that can leave them extremely ill, injured, or even dead.
“In a review of 2024 OSHA injury and illness data, Sentient identified 100 injuries that resulted from falls, 100 sprains and strains, 72 injuries involving cuts and lacerations, including amputations, 17 eye injuries, 35 crush injuries and 27 other injuries and illnesses suffered by workers across every stage of turkey production.” - Sentient Media
These injuries were not isolated to one company; in fact they were found within 50 different establishments, owned by nine different companies that produce turkeys, including Aviagen, Buckhead Meats, Butterball, Cargill, Farm Fresh Turkey Store, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Prestage Foods of SC, Select Genetics, and West Central Turkeys. These nine companies are resposible for the vast majority of turkey sold in the U.S.
Can those who truly care about human rights continue to pay for some of the most egregious workplace safety risks and violations known, all for a holiday meal?
The Planet
Although climate change has become less of a concern for many with the recently appointed administration, yes, you should still care about your global footprint. Holidays, especially Thanksgiving, come with quite the pricey environmental impact.
Water Usage
According to Population Education, here is the water footprint for each commonly consumed Thanksgiving food:
- Roasted 15 pound turkey with herb butter: 4330 gallons of water
- Bowl of mashed potatoes with butter: 275 gallons
- Green bean casserole with fried onions on top: 547 gallons
- Dinner rolls (24): 585 gallons
- Pecan pie: 1086 gallons
- Glass of milk: 49 gallons
- Glass of wine: 36 gallons
Notably, all of the items on this list are not traditionally vegan (maybe the wine, but we don’t know how it was clarified).
Land Usage
“Cheese, and dairy in general, comes with a heavier carbon footprint than many other animal-sourced proteins, because it comes from cows. Cows, as ruminant animals with a powerful digestive system, burp lots of methane (beef is even higher because, on top of the burps, you’ve got a lot of land use thanks to pasture and feed crops). Dairy production also requires more freshwater and land.” - Sentient Media
However, because of the horrific animal welfare conditions (some of the worst conditions in the food system), poultry foods like turkey meat and eggs have lower emissions than dairy, but not by much. Turkeys and other birds used for food are given less food and less land, making their footprint the lowest of all non-human animals farmed for food.
Emissions
According to Climate Central, “Over Thanksgiving alone, some 46 million Americans will be taking trips of 50 miles or longer to visit friends and family, according to AAA. And a whopping 89.1% of them will be driving, with another 7.7% taking to the air. The rest will travel largely by bus or train.” I’m in no way suggesting that you shouldn’t see your friends and family for the holidays, but perhaps take note of the environmental impact this holiday of love and gratitude causes.
“If you are worried about climate change, don't eat turkey if you are going to drive more than 72.25 miles this Thanksgiving.” - TIME Magazine
Waste
“A new analysis by ReFED estimates that across America 320 million pounds of food will be wasted this Thanksgiving, representing $550 million worth of food thrown away in just a single day. At a time when more Americans are facing food insecurity, the amount of discarded food is the equivalent of 267 million meals that could have gone to people in need.” -ReFED
This food could’ve gone to food pantries, starving children, the unhoused, and so many others who need it more. Instead, it will be left to decompose slowly in a landfill, releasing countless levels of methane gas.
What a holiday. A day filled with violence, mourning, colonization, environmental destruction, rape, murder… I mean love, kindness, and gratitude… Please join me in boycotting Thanksgiving and no longer participating in this so-called tradition. Invite love in your heart this holiday season, not loathing. Ready to boycott Thanksgiving? Read my corresponding Substack entry, “Stop Veganizing Thanksgiving.”
“Don’t let it be lost on you that the turkey, a bird native to Turtle Island, is the victim of choice to celebrate the whitewashed genocide of Indigenous Peoples by Europeans.” - Fernando @soyspinozista