Turkeys

What’s that you say? You think Turkeys are ugly?… and no, you don’t want to look at their photos? Well, I don’t know what you’re seeing, but I see cheekiness, love of life, friendship and beauty in every Turkey I meet. Yes, I do actually think Turkeys are beautiful. Look at that amazing colour of their feathers, some of them glisten in the sun from green to blue to black. They are big, stunning birds who are very often laughed about and misunderstood. In the wild turkeys would naturally perch at night in the trees in forests, take dust bathes when they pleased and spend the day foraging and searching for insects and bugs. Sadly, the intensive meat farming industry has taken all of these natural instincts away from turkeys just so humans can eat them whenever they please.

Rescued factory farmed turkeys at Edgar’s Mission

About 5 million turkeys are intensively farmed and eaten by Australians every year. What does this mean for these lovely birds? Just like factory farmed broiler chickens, turkeys are bred to grow as big as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Factory farmed turkeys are killed between 10 – 17 weeks old, whereas in the wild, turkeys can live up to 10 years old. Because they are selectively bred to grow so huge, they develop leg, joint and bone disorders and they also often die of organ failure or heart disease. They live in cramped conditions, and such stressful living conditions promotes behaviours such as pecking and fighting. Instead of giving each turkey more room in these sheds, farmers cut off part of their beaks and part of their middle toes without pain relief to stop the fighting. Factory farmed turkeys get so large that they often cannot move or stand up and end up stranded on the floors of the sheds covered in their own waste.

Please think about the lives of factory farmed turkeys when you choose your next meal. Turkeys want the simple pleasures in life just like you and I. They just want to be given the chance to walk on grass, to see the sky, to breath the fresh air and to live.

This slideshow below features factory farmed turkeys from Edgar’s Mission (www.edgarsmission.org.au) and various other farms and private properties.

Please don’t use my images without permission. All images are Copyright Tamara Kenneally.