As November settles in, the city gets quiet. The streets empty out and the chatters soften as non-New Yorkers head back to their hometowns for the holidays. Left behind is a rare stillness, a peaceful, lingering hum only true New Yorkers know. I walk along the East River, gazing at the changing leaves; the gray sky hovers over the city’s silhouette that’s reflected onto the rippling water. The air is crisp, alive — and for a moment, so am I.

Yet, beneath that calm, something plagues my mind. While I lose myself in this fleeting serenity, millions of turkeys are being slaughtered for a so-called holiday of “thanks.” The thought hits me like a gust of chilly autumn wind: impossible to ignore.

When we think of Thanksgiving, we usually think of a morning spent watching the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — waiting for their “Tom the Turkey” float — or reruns of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” We imagine homes filled with aromas of home-cooked meals. However, the truth behind this gratitude-centered holiday is much darker. 

The Food Empowerment Project reported that a single slaughterhouse is capable of killing 360 birds per minute, which would equal 518,000 birds per day. 

In the United States, 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving, with more than 250 million turkeys killed annually. 

99.8% of turkeys raised for meat are living on factory farms — an industrial-scale agricultural operation in which animals are treated as commodities rather than sentient beings in the name of commercial profit. The Food Empowerment Project reported that a single slaughterhouse is capable of killing 360 birds per minute, which would equal 518,000 birds per day. 

Animals in factory farming houses are crammed into small spaces — cages or crates where they can barely move, stand up or turn around. They are both born and slaughtered in these spaces. They spend the entirety of their short lives indoors in windowless sheds, never breathing fresh air or feeling sunlight. 

In factory farms, turkeys are subjected to debeaking and detoeing without the use of painkillers, usually done from only a couple of days old to the first weeks of life.

Confined to dark, overcrowded environments with barely enough room to move, the animals are forced to stand in their own waste. The buildup of filth leads to high concentrations of ammonia in the air, causing the animals to develop respiratory issues and lesions that often go untreated. 

In such harsh conditions, the natural mating of animals becomes impossible. Instead, animals are forcefully bred through violent forms of artificial insemination. Breeding animals are confined for months on end, their sole purpose to produce offspring that will be slaughtered for profit. Once their breeding abilities decline, they too are slaughtered.

In factory farms, turkeys are subjected to debeaking and detoeing without the use of painkillers, usually done from only a couple of days old to the first weeks of life. During this process, workers cut off the toes of birds and force their heads into machines that use hot lasers to cut their beaks off. This is done to prevent animals from fighting back at workers, self-mutilating due to stress and attacking each other due to stress-induced aggression, along with injuring each other in their dense confinement. 

In the wild, turkeys prove to be beautiful creatures and highly social birds.

The animals are also selectively bred to grow to unnatural sizes at unnatural rates, with the goal of maximizing industry profit. The breeding leads to animals facing debilitating injuries, undeveloped bones, failing organs, heart attacks and growing so large that they can’t stand on their own, move properly or even eat. 

Baby birds that are sick, deformed, dying, injured, born male or considered “surplus” are thrown into grinding machines alive and are commonly used in pet food. Transportation and rough handling by workers leads to birds getting trapped in conveyor belts and machinery, resulting in broken necks, missing and bulging eyes, and bleeding wings and legs. 

As a result of this aggressive breeding, turkeys raised in factory farms reach their slaughter weight — also known as “market weight” — by just four months old, and sometimes even sooner. In comparison, wild turkeys have an average lifespan of three to four years. 

When slaughtered, turkeys and other birds are hung upside down on shackle lines and placed in electrified water to stun them. However, this process often fails, leaving most birds fully conscious before their throats are cut and they are left to bleed out. Those who do not bleed to death are then thrown into scalding tanks where they are boiled alive. This process is meant to extract their feathers before machines sever their heads, feet and organs. 

In the United States, factory-farmed birds are not protected under the Animal Welfare Act or the federal Humane Slaughter Act, meaning that there are no regulations governing their treatment and no laws to ensure they are kept in humane conditions. This lack of legislation favors the consumerist market, as chickens are the most widely consumed animal in the United States.

In the wild, turkeys prove to be beautiful creatures and highly social birds. There are only two species of turkeys: the wild turkey, found in North America, and the ocellated turkey in Central America. Wild turkeys are striking creatures covered in 5,000 to 6,000 feathers and distinguished by their long legs and necks. Male turkeys are larger than their female counterparts, but both sport thick feathers of varying hues and patterns. They spend their days sunbathing and strutting around the forest, gobbling up fruits, seeds and acorns in flocks. Nighttime calls for shelter from predators, during which turkeys fly up to trees for safety. 

It is important to remember that the animals that end up on our dinner tables are sentient beings that should be allowed to live long, fulfilling lives free of suffering.

While wild turkeys have varying bronze colors, pigmentation and thick feathers, industrial turkeys are totally white — their natural colors are intentionally bred out due to consumer preferences. 

Just like people, turkeys experience emotions and pain, forming complex social relations with each other. With their own unique personality, they are known to have 28 distinct calls. To communicate with each other, their emotions are indicated by the changing colors on their heads, shifting from red to blue to white based on the intensity of their feelings. 

Turkeys also possess excellent memory, as they can remember the faces of other turkeys by voice and facial characteristics, along with recognizing humans and details about the acres of land they live on. They often show great affection — they groom one another, and female turkeys have been known to adopt hatchlings beyond their own. However, their care is not reserved for others of the same species, as turkeys have also been known to enjoy cuddles from friendly humans. 

As you can see, turkeys are not meant for the cruel life of factory farming. That is why this year, I symbolically adopted Tutu, a turkey born on a factory farm and rescued by a New York City student who then brought Tutu to Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rehabilitates animals that were victims of factory farming.  

If that wasn’t enough to make you rethink your support of the factory farming industry, it’s worth mentioning how damaging factory farming and the consumption of animal-based products are to the environment. Factory farming not only demands millions of gallons of water, but it also pollutes our waters with the large amounts of animal waste it produces. 

Factory farming also exacerbates environmental racism and classism. Most factory farming facilities are built near low-income communities and communities of color, exposing residents to immense environmental hazards.  

Factory farming is a major contributor to global warming, as it pollutes our air and is responsible for 15.4% of the world’s greenhouse emissions, along with the destruction of millions of acres of forest land to make room for slaughterhouses. Globally, factory farming accounts for approximately 16% of the world’s fresh water. On the other hand, gas emissions, water use and land destruction from plant-based food are significantly lower.

I am not saying you shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, reminding yourselves of what you are thankful for. However, it is important to remember that the animals that end up on our dinner tables are sentient beings that should be allowed to live long, fulfilling lives free of suffering. So instead of eating that turkey, how about substituting it for some sweet potatoes, corn, butternut squash, vegan pumpkin pie or some good old harvest chili soup?

Apart from replacing your meat with vegan substitutes, you can always support animal sanctuaries such as The Gentle Barn, Woodstock Farms Sanctuary or Pasado’s Safe Haven by “adopting” turkeys instead of eating them.