Every
year in the United States, almost 300 million turkeys are killed for their
flesh. Virtually all spend their entire lives on factory farms and have no
federal legal protection. Bred, drugged, and genetically manipulated; turkeys
can now weigh close to 30 pounds. A human infant growing at the same rate would
weigh 1,500 pounds at 18 weeks of age. It is common for turkeys to die from
organ failure before they are even 6 months old, due to their unnatural
size.
To keep the birds from killing one another in such stressful,
crowded conditions, parts of the turkeys’ toes and beaks are cut off, as are the
males’ snoods. Millions of turkeys don’t even make it past the first few weeks
of life in a factory farm before succumbing to “starve-out,” a stress-induced
condition that causes young birds to simply stop eating.
|