From All-Creatures.org Book Recommendation

More Than a Meal - The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual and Reality

Author: Karen Davis, PhD, United Poultry Concerns

Reviewed by: Frank Hoffman, All-Creatures.org

More Than a Meal The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual and Reality
Available to purchase at United Poultry Concerns (UPC)
Free Downloadable PDF

Review:

Karen Davis' More Than a Meal is an anthology of the life of the turkey - a native American bird - and the abuses this species has suffered at the hands of human beings.

One of the things that the author makes abundantly clear is the manner in which depraved humans seek to denigrate those whom they consider "inferior" in order to justify their sadistic abuse, torture, and killing. The turkey is a prime example of this abusive behavior, for we not only belittle the turkey, we also humiliate our fellow human beings by referring to them as "turkeys," when in fact, we can all learn from the turkeys' care of their families. Mother turkeys in the wild will fight fiercely to protect their young. Human manipulation of domesticated turkeys has resulted in offspring that never experience the social order, the mothering, that is natural to the species. For example:

"According to an article in Turkey World [a poultry industry publication], 'Poults come in one side of the service room bright eyed and bushy tailed. They are squeezed, thrown down a slide onto a treadmill, someone picks them up and pulls the snood off their heads, clips three toes off each foot, debeaks them, puts them on another conveyer belt that delivers them to another carousel where they get a power injection, usually of an antibiotic, that whacks them in the back of their necks. They have been traumatized. They don't look very good.'"

Davis tells how we humans have bred the domestic turkeys into such deformed beings that they can no longer reproduce themselves on their own initiative. Now, they are reproduced through "artificial insemination," which is another way of saying that humans masturbate the male turkeys and rape the females.

In fact, turkeys are quite intelligent. As Karen Davis and other quoted writers clearly point out, these birds do not deserve the "stupid" image that many humans have thrust upon them.

The author describes the ultimate in human hypocrisy: the annual Thanksgiving presidential pardoning "ceremony." The turkey is not guilty of anything that he or she could be pardoned for. However, humans are another matter.

More Than a Meal is an excellent and scholarly reference source for learning about the true nature of turkeys, and how we humans have abused and taken away their God-given lives.

We highly recommend More Than a Meal to everyone.

About the Author:

Founded in 1990 by Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns is the world's foremost non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the respectful treatment of domestic fowl. UPC runs a haven for chickens in Virginia, and also teaches people about the egg and chicken meat industries, the natural lives of free chickens, pleasures and benefits of human-chicken companionship, and alternatives to chicken farming and the use of chickens in education and scientific experimentation.

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