The Truth About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wholesome time to come together
with family. A time to eat delicious food

prepared with love. A time to reflect on everything
that you have to be grateful for. And when

you really take a step back and look at this
heartwarming holiday, you realize that Thanksgiving

is seriously fucked up.

Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
to another vegan nugget. Today’s video is

all about American Thanksgiving. Now I’m
not here to spoil your holiday or invalidate

your family traditions. I simply want to take
a look at both the origins of Thanksgiving

and the current practices involved with its
observance. Thanksgiving, for all its warm

and fuzzy feelings, is essentially the celebration
of genocide with genocide.

Let me explain: we're first going to take
a look at the origins of Thanksgiving, and

then move onto current practices. It may seem
for a bit that I’ve gone off my vegan rocker

into a history lesson, but I promise I’ll
bring it back to the animals. Now there is

a bit of debate as to the actual date and
circumstances of the very first Thanksgiving.

Proposed dates range anywhere from 1565 to
the latter 1600s. I’m going to focus on

two of the more accepted accounts, one being
a little more warm and fuzzy than the other.

Please reference the blog post linked here
and in the video description for further resources.

One of the more highly cited, and more wholesome-feeling
first Thanksgivings was in 1621 with the Pilgrims

and the Wampanoag Indians. According to some
of the scant records, Squanto of the Patuxet

tribe, who has survived slavery under the
English, negotiated a treaty between the Wampanoag

Nation and the Pilgrims, an element of which
offered mutual protection. The pilgrims has

just harvested their first crop and were “exercising
their arms,” meaning firing their guns.

The understanding is that Massasoit, the Wampanoag
leader heard this and came to aid in a supposed

attack. When he and his warriors arrived they
were invited to join the feast, though they

had return with more food as there wasn’t
enough for everyone. This feast apparently

lasted three days. Today, this relationship
established between the Wampanoag and the

Pilgrims is mourned by the Wampanoag, who
gather every year with hundreds of Native

people at Cole’s Hill overlooking Plymouth
Rock for the National Day of Mourning. Before

1616, the Wampanoag numbered 50,000-100,000.
The arrival of European traders brought along

a deadly plague, which killed up to two-thirds
of their population, while many others were

captured and sold as slaves. And yet these
people still welcomed the Pilgrims.

The second highly cited first Thanksgiving,
and one much less wholesome-feeling, occurred

in 1637, and is said to be the first officially
proclaimed all-Pilgrims Thanksgiving. The

Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop declared
this feast “a celebration and thanksgiving

for subduing the Pequots,” one of the native
tribes. It was essentially a victory feast

for the massacre of the Pequot people. The
Pequot had not agreed to the treaty Squanto

had created with the Wampanoag. Their tribe
had already been reduced from 8,000 to 1,500

by English-borne diseases, and around time
of the massacre the Pequots were celebrating

their annual green corn dance ceremony. In
the predawn hours, English and Dutch mercenaries

surrounded the sleeping Pequot and ordered
them to come outside. Those who did were clubbed

to death or shot and those remaining inside
shelters were burned alive. William Bradford,

the former Governor of Plymouth described
the massacre, saying “Those that escaped

the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed
to pieces, others run through with their rapiers,

so that they were quickly dispatched and very
few escaped. It was a fearful sight to see

them thus frying in the fire…horrible was
the stink and scent thereof, but the victory

seemed a sweet sacrifice.” It was the day
after this that Governor Winthrop declared

the day of celebration and thanksgiving in
honor of this horrific event.

So that is the groundwork for our Thanksgiving
holiday. Built on the genocide and violent

destruction of an entire people. Now you may
be saying that this is tragic and un-excusable,

but it’s not what people are celebrating
with Thanksgiving today. The modern holiday

is far removed from this showcase of our inhumanity.
But I have to challenge this and say that

while our thoughts and intentions may be nowhere
near this historic genocide, our actions today

are incredibly in concert with those historic
settlers. You see, knowingly or not, we celebrate

this original genocide with a second genocide.
And that is the genocide of turkeys.

Now you may scoff at this concept of a turkey
genocide, but what turkeys go through is nothing

short of horrific, barbaric, and terrifying.
According to the USDA, more than 45 million

turkeys are killed annually in the United
States just for Thanksgiving. That’s one

sixth of all the turkeys sold in the US each
year. I just want to give a quick warning

that some of the images I'm going to use in
this next section may be disturbing to some

viewers. I urge you not to look away to give
a voice to the millions of turkeys who have

to go through this experience behind closed
doors. But if you choose to look away, please

do listen to the audio so that you still hear
the information. And I'll play this tone [tone

sounds] when the footage is complete and you
can look again. Before being slaughtered,

turkeys spend their short lives cramped on
top of one another, even in so-called free-range

and cage-free facilities, a term which means
nothing (just see this video of mine for more

information on that). Due to these atrocious
conditions, turkeys are rife with disease,

respiratory infections, ulcerated feet, blistered
breasts, and ammonia-burned eyes. They are

pumped full of antibiotics yet 75-100% of
them still contain disease when they reach

the slaughterhouse. They are bred to grow
so fast and abnormally large that they are

made lame by their own weight and often have
to use their wings to reach food and water.

Were a human child to grow at this rate, it
would e 1500 pounds by 18 weeks of age. Because

of their size and inability to move properly,
turkeys must be sexually violated in order

to breed them. The makes are assaulted for
their semen, which his forced into the females.

At birth, turkeys are mutilated. They are
painfully debeaked and detoed without the

use of any anesthetic. When they are only
12 to 26 weeks old. Turkeys are grabbed by

their feet and jammed into crates without
food or water and shipped off to slaughter.

There is no law in the US to regulate the
treatment of turkeys during the catching,

shipping and slaughter process. Once at the
slaughterhouse, they are strung up by their

feet, which is especially painful for this
unnaturally large birds. They may also be

stunned by an electrical stunner or run through
an electrified water bath so their feathers

come out more easily. They are fully conscious
for this process and then have their throats

cut. [tone sounds]

This is the process that is repeated 45 million
times a year for American Thanksgiving alone,

as we come to the table to show our thanks,
very literally honoring our country's original

genocide with the now longest-running and
bloodiest genocide of our species’ history.

So I’ll say it again. Thanksgiving is seriously
fucked up.

Now all of that said, you can certainly have
a vegan thanksgiving and reclaim this horrific

holiday for something that we can all be grateful
for: delicious food free of cruelty. And on

Friday I’ll show you exactly how to have
an epically ethical thanksgiving dinner so

stay tuned. For more information about the
treatment of turkeys and other birds, check

out the organization United Poultry Concerns,
which I've linked in the blogpost. And this

year during your Thanksgiving, perhaps take
a moment to reflect upon the extreme suffering

inherent in this holiday both historic and
present and honor the memory of those lost,

both human and animal alike.

Now I’d love to hear your thoughts on Thanksgivings
and your traditions. Let me know in the comments.

Give the video a thumbs up if you liked it
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