Take Turkey Lovers’ Month Back from the National Turkey Federation

Timmy (left) of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary & Marge (right) of Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary

June is Turkey Lovers’® Month. At first glance, that seems like something that any animal-loving guy or gal could get behind, right? Wrong.

The National Turkey Federation wants you to know that “this year marks the eleventh annual recognition of “June is Turkey Lovers’® Month,” and it’s the perfect opportunity to blend two of America’s favorite summer treats—turkey and grilling.” (Apparently, it isn’t enough that 46 million turkeys are killed and consumed each Thanksgiving… frankly, when I was consuming animal products, turkey wasn’t very high on my list of “favorite summer treats,” so kudos to the marketing folks for pulling that one out of their bag of tricks.)

Notice the language being used. The National Turkey Federation – and its customers – love “turkey” – an abstract, neatly packaged food item that holds no similarity to what its contents were pre-supermarket shelf. I question whether the concept of “turkeys” – intelligent animals with their own lives and their own interests – ever cross the minds of “Turkey Lovers”.

This is one way that the meat industry desensitizes people to the actuality of what they are consuming. One eats turkey, chicken and fish – not turkeys, chickens and fishes. One eats pork and beef – not pigs and cows. When they deemed this celebration Turkey Lovers’® Month (am I the only one who is rubbed wrong by the register mark?), they really did mean it in the singular, abstract, neatly packaged way.

While this example of advertising doesn’t use a commercial spot or a billboard, it calls back to what we discussed in our very first Ad Nauseam piece here at YDV: Commercial Desensitizers, which took a look at a Clorox Wipes ad where Grandpa made two chicken carcasses dance on a coffee table. There was “no regard…for the fact that the headless puppets on that coffee table used to be living, breathing beings” in that ad. Sound familiar?

I propose that we turn Turkey Lovers’® Month from its intent and honor the birds for who they are – sensitive, intelligent, social animals; beautiful individuals who deserve a better life than the one they are breeded into in the factory farm system. Meet a turkey up close at a sanctuary, such as Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, and my guess is you will leave with a new perspective on these wonderful animals… and perhaps, you will leave truly loving them in a way that the National Turkey Federation will never understand.

Photo credit: Daria Zeoli