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Hunting for Thanksgiving

  • Antonio Evans
  • November 23, 2010

Hunting turkeys for Thanksgiving may be left to those who actually like hunting as a sport; majority of Americans would rather buy their turkey in supermarkets and worry about the thawing instead.  Evidently, other than the convenience of purchasing commercial turkey, there are actually benefits in hunting for this fowl instead.  Although the idea of directly killing an animal may be hard to swallow, the whole process of turkey farming is not that great when you get the facts.

The turkeys (Broad Breasted White Breed) we purchase these days are typically bred in huge coops wherein they are placed in cages and fed with feeds that aim them to fatten up just in time for Thanksgiving.   Because of the nature of commercialized farming, a significant number of turkeys that are being consumed every year is raised in very controlled conditions.  Although some may argue that breeding these turkeys is not cruel, the fact that it is raised in a controlled environment is already inhumane.

The aspect of breeding a turkey alone is a very unnatural process.  True to the intentions of breeding, these turkeys are subject to a number of processes that are very far from their nature.  In addition to their living conditions, the breeders take the newly hatched poults and “sex”them; from there, the female and male turkeys are sent to grow-out farms separately because the males have a different growth rate than the females.  Once they are in these farms, their diets are designed in order to have them fatten up; usually they are fed with corn, soybean meal and a combination of vitamins, minerals, adjusted proteins, carbohydrates and fat.  These turkeys are then slaughtered after 14 weeks, although the males take longer at 18 weeks.

There is also the aspect of unnatural breeding that takes place in these farms.  Should the male turkeys grow bigger and they are not capable to achieve natural fertilization, their semen is gathered and is injected to the females for artificial insemination.  This is a way for farmers to ensure to continue the breeding process by taking advantage of the genes of the bigger turkeys.

In this case, how is hunting better than going to the grocery store?  ,There is a distinct difference when looking at the life cycle of commercially-bred turkeys and wild turkeys.  Wild turkeys have a longer life span than the commercial ones because they are not subject to any controlled environment.  They also eat what is natural for them and tend to be leaner with tastier, darker meat.  Because wild turkeys are respected for their life span, they become subject to hunting when the time is right for them.

In a sense, although hunting is still killing, it shows a better respect towards the bird than those who went through the unfortunate processes in turkey farms.  These birds have lived in the wild, and it is in the wild where they die. At this point, there is a greater integrity in fulfilling their purpose as sustenance when they are hunted rather than slaughtered.

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