PETA Wants You to Say ‘No Thanks’ to Turkey

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA], always out on the radical fringe, is busy with its annual crusade against the eating of Thanksgiving turkeys. It’s now offering “The Top Ten Reasons Not to Eat Turkey” on its web site.

I won’t burden you with the entire series, but here are just a couple of the most ludicrous claims made by the group:

Turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. Anyone who spends time with them at farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats.

Eating a turkey carcass contaminated with bird flu could kill you, and currently available drugs might not work. Cooking should kill the virus, but it could be left behind on cutting boards and utensils and spread through something else you’re eating.

And my favorite: Let’s face it: If you’re eating a turkey, that’s a corpse you’ve got there on the table, and if you don’t eat it quickly enough, it will decompose. Is that really what we want as the centerpiece of a holiday meal: an animal’s dead and decaying carcass?

Well . . . yes, as a matter of fact. I would prefer it cooked to a golden brown gleam that would make Henry VIII proud.

Seriously, there are real issues to be addressed when it comes to animal welfare and the stewardship of all God’s creatures. But the animal rights extremists like PETA just make themselves look foolish. Are we really to believe that turkeys are out on the farm tapping their toes to “their favorite tunes?” Do they really think they will reach the hearts and minds of Americans by asserting, “that’s a corpse you’ve got there on the table?”

Of course, this is the same group that is now, in their own words, “taking aim at dads who fish,” with a new ‘comic book’ for kids. Your Daddy Kills Animals!is designed as a means of scaring children into fearing their own fathers. “Imagine that a man dangles a piece of candy in front of you. You love candy so you reach for it. But, as you grab the candy, a huge metal hook stabs through your hand and you’re ripped off the ground,” the text screams. “But guess what? Your daddy plays the same wicked trick on fish and fish get scared too!”

The ‘comic’ book’s final statement: “Until your daddy learns that it’s not ‘fun’ to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He’s so hooked on killing defenseless animals that they could be next!”

We discussed this issue on Tuesday’s edition of The Albert Mohler Program.