Hey Obama! Here’s How You REALLY Pardon A Turkey

President Obama: Happy Thanksgiving and welcome
to the White House.

Tomorrow is one of the best days of the year
to be an American.

It’s a day to count our blessings, spend
time with the ones we love, and enjoy some

good food and some great company.

But it’s also one of the worst days of the
year to be a turkey.

They don’t have it so good.

The rare exception of course are the two birds
who've joined me today.

Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
to another vegan nugget.

Every year, the President of the United States
pardons two turkeys from being slaughtered

for Thanksgiving.

But what most people don’t realize about
this supposedly lighthearted tradition is

that the majority of pardoned turkeys die
within a year of their pardon.

And this year, as in several times before,
the two presidential turkeys will come from

my state—Iowa.

Two days ago I was at a turkey slaughterhouse in Iowa, where over 20,000 turkeys a day are killed.

They were terrified.

Sitting in the cold for hours upon hours.

Covered and feces and sores.

One with a growth the size of a basketball
on her chest.

I stayed with them for hours and streamed
footage live to the channel to share their

stories on the last day of their lives.

You can see those videos to be with them here.
[See upper right corner]

The turkeys we eat are bred to grow very large
very fast and are slaughtered at around 18-20

weeks of age.

Because they’re so unnaturally large, those
with the good fortune of being pardoned die

from typically obesity-related complications.

And as for where they get to live out the
brief remainder of their lives?

Destinations have ranged from Disneyland,
to Mount Vernon, to this place, and now…here,

where the public gets to ogle them in their
enclosures.

This extravagant production, run by the lobbyist
organization the National Turkey Federation,

essentially serves as an extended governmental
infomercial for the turkey industry.

The Federation’s annual turkey gifting began
more or less in 1947 when angry farmers sent

crates of live hens to President Truman in
protest of his failed “poutlryless Thursday”

attempt to reduce national meat and egg consumption.

But it doesn’t take a president to pardon
a turkey.

And as you can see, it’s not much of a reprieve
after all.

To show you how it’s really done, and shine
some light on this dark holiday—founded

upon the massacre of an entire people, who
still mourn the loss of their families while

others gather in celebration with their own.

I want to share with you a story of hope from
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in Texas.

The following video was created by the incredible
film making team Chee Wei and Alana Tompson.

You’ll hear Rowy Girl Founder Renee mention
FFA, which along with 4-H is pro-farming agricultural

youth program, teaching children how to raise,
care for and show so-called “food” animals

before sending them to slaughter.

To hear more about other FFA and 4H survivors,
see this video about the residents of

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary.

[Phone Rings]

Renee: Hi, Is this Lillie?

This is Renee King Sonnen with the Rowdy Girl
Sanctuary.

I have a strange request.

Renee: Right now, we are going to rescue two

turkeys that would have been slaughtered through
the FFA system.

We saw a flyer in a health food store a couple
of days ago advertising these two turkeys

for sale for fifty dollars each.

We grabbed the flyer, took it off the wall,
left and straight away called and talked to

the lady to see if she would pardon these
two turkeys.

Renee: Hi

Lillie: Hey! How are you doing?

Renee: So good to meet you

Renee: In Texas and other parts of the country,
FFA is a real valued, traditional and cultural

experience for our youth.

But of course folks who really, really love
animals and choose not to participate in any

of the violence towards them at all.

We are just elated that she said 'Yes' to
pardoning the last two that she has.

Renee: So they just got out of the FFA?

Lillie: Yeah! the Fair, the
Brazoria County Fair

Renee: So you had how many?

Lillie: We had twenty.

Renee: Twenty!

Lillie: I have three kids so, we had nine
in the show.

Renee: So had you have any that, when they
were ready to take them all away…

I heard that they call it the trail of tears,
you know, when they go and …

Lillie: don’t know..

Anna is getting to keep her rabbit...

Renee: really?!

Lillie: So, her rabbit that made eleventh
out of eighty four she’s going to keep him

and he’s going to live here forever.

Renee: Awww! that’s so awesome!

Lillie: we can compromise when we can but these
were bred for certain purpose and that’s what...

Renee: You got to and you get that—

Lillie: Yes I have to have that mentality.

Renee: Yeah! you have to have
that mentality to do it. Exactly!

Lillie: Yeah, otherwise I just don’t...

Renee: You lose your mind
Lillie: I wouldn’t do it!

I wouldn’t do it! I wouldn’t raise them if I—you know...

Renee: No!...

Renee: You are so awesome to be doing this with us
Lillie: Yep

Renee: Can I give you another Hug?

[Heartwarming Music continues]

Renee: It was such an experience to see
this woman open her heart and pardon those

two turkeys.

To see the other turkeys that were destined
to be Thanksgiving dinner was really sad.

You know, we really wanted all of them

Tommy: You can’t save them all.

There’s probably 80 Million turkeys
that are going to be harvested in the next

few weeks for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Renee: These turkeys are so inquisitive.

And they have personalities, you know, they
love life, they want to live!

Renee: Thanksgiving is a time when families
all get together nieces, nephew, uncles.

Families call, they come from all over.

You may not see these family members but that
one time a year, so it really is a celebration

of love.

[Uplifting Music]

Renee: This year, this Thanksgiving, these
two Turkeys are going to be celebrated so

that instead of giving thanks for a turkey
on our plate, we are going to thanks for these

turkeys and we are going to be giving them
a Thanksgiving Dinner to remember!

Renee: So everyone is gonna want to know
I'm sure what their names are gonna be

because right now they have no names.

And we have decided to give them names of
the two folks behind the camera right now.

We have Alana with Black Ant Films.

So we are going to call one of them Alana
So.. that’s one name. And then the other one,

we were going to call her Chee Wei—
he’s the producer of De Claffer Music.

But we decided that instead of calling him
Chee Wei, since that’s a masculine term,

we are going to call her Chi Chi.

So we got Chi Chi and Alana.

We want to welcome them to
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary.

Please share this video this holiday season
to show what true compassion looks like

and the truth about Thanksgiving.

See these videos here, which are also linked
in the description, for more about Thanksgiving’s

dark history, what turkeys really experience,
and to get involved with and support the work

of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary.

Subscribe and enable notifications for more
vegan truth every week.

Now go live vegan, spare a turkey or two,
and I’ll see you soon.

Please think about them.

Please think about them this...

"Thanksgiving," y'know?

Don't forget them.

Cause it might just seem like...

trucks full of identical birds, you know?

One's the same as the other?

But those are individuals.

For each one of them,...

this is their life— this is their only life.

This is their last day.

They're about to go inside and experience
something that none of us can even fathom.

It's their life.