According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 46 million turkeys will be killed for Thanksgiving dinners this year, but the beleaguered animals do have a few friends in the Southland who’ll be celebrating the holiday without eating birds.
Vegans of LA will host what it bills as “Los Angeles’ biggest vegan potluck event of the year” on Thanksgiving Day. The Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck, “a tradition for more than 25 years,” will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cheviot Hills Recreation Center at 2551 Motor Ave. It will feature live music and an open mic.
Pollution Studios in Los Angeles will host its Vegan Friendsgiving Potluck on Saturday at its home on 3239 Union Pacific Ave., featuring “food, merriment and roller skating,” and adoptable rescue rabbits from Bunny World Foundation. The potluck, an annual event for several years, was suspended during the pandemic, and is returning this year for the first time.
Farm Sanctuary in Acton, near the Antelope Valley, celebrates turkeys “as living, vibrant, social, emotional, and sentient beings” who “form loving relationships, have strong and distinct personalities, and deserve a life free from harm,” the group says in a message on its website.
“Thanksgiving is supposed to be about gratitude, but the factory farming industry has co-opted it to promote the consumption of turkeys who’ve suffered tortured lives on industrial farms,” Farm Sanctuary President and Co-Founder Gene Baur said. “It’s more fun and more compassionate to celebrate the holiday with turkeys as our friends, instead of eating them.”
The group’s annual Celebration for the Turkeys event on Saturday is sold out, but the sanctuary is also conducting its annual Adopt A Turkey campaign. For a one-time donation of $35, people can symbolically adopt a rescued turkey, or sponsor an entire flock for $150, allowing the animals to live out their natural lives at one of the group’s spacious farms, including the one in Acton.
Sponsors receive a certificate with their adopted turkey’s photo and bio, including their rescue story. The group has been sponsoring the program since 1986, and several of their rescued turkeys’ stories can be viewed at www.farmsanctuary.org/adopt-a-turkey.
Farm Sanctuary also offers a “Turkey-Free Pledge,” which people can sign as a promise to leave turkeys off their plate on Thanksgiving.
Mayim Bialik, Alan Cumming, Corey Feldman, Nikki Glaser, Ashley Jackson, Jane Lynch, Richa Moorjani, Madelaine Petsch, Alicia Silverstone, Langhorne Slim, and Jackson Galaxy are among the celebrities who signed the pledge this year.
“This holiday season I am thrilled to spend time at a local sanctuary where I have the privilege of feeding turkeys who are highly intelligent animals that form strong social bonds, and show affection towards one another. No different than our dogs and cats at home,” Zohra Fahim, president and founder of Los Angeles Alliance for Animals, told City News Service.
Mercy for Animals, an international animal protection nonprofit headquartered in Los Angeles, has introduced a public campaign ahead of President Joe Biden’s traditional turkey pardon at the White House, encouraging all Americans to pardon a turkey by choosing plant-based food instead. The group is also promoting a ChooseVeg guide as a resource for incorporating plant-based foods into holiday meals. It can be found at chooseveg.com/.
The group says the campaign’s goal is to educate the public about the routine cruelty in the turkey industry, including:
— In factory farms, parts of turkeys’ toes and beaks are cut or burned off;
— Turkeys are bred to grow so large so quickly that some cannot even stand;
— The birds are sent to slaughter after just five or six months of life.
“Serving turkey on Thanksgiving has come to be symbolic of gratitude and love, but nothing could be further from the truth: In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, more than 45 million turkeys are brutally slaughtered after suffering painful procedures, such as beak and foot mutilation, and living their short lives without seeing sunlight,” said AJ Albrecht, managing director of Mercy For Animals in North America.
“But here is news for which we can be thankful: National consumption of turkey has declined over the past 25 years, according to the USDA, and each year more and more consumers opt for plant-based turkey-style roasts for their Thanksgiving tables,” Albrecht continued. “Given the variety of delicious ready-made roasts conveniently available in most supermarkets, plant-based holiday celebrations have never been easier.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is also promoting a no-turkey pledge for Thanksgiving, in the fifth year of its “ThanksVegan” campaign. More information, including recipes, can be found at peta/org/thanksvegan.
Despite the near-ubiquity of turkeys on Thanksgiving plates, families do have an impressive number of other meal choices.
The most popular vegan option for holiday dinners is Tofurkey, an Oregon-based company founded in 1980 by self-described teacher, naturalist and hippie Seth Tibbott. The company debuted its tofu-based Holiday Roast in 1995. Tofurkey roasts and other products are available at many Southland supermarkets, and can also be found online for as little as $12.99.
Several other companies have followed suit and developed their own vegan roasts in recent years, including Gardein, Field Roast and Trader Joe’s.
Veggie Grill, a nationwide vegan chain that opened its first restaurant in Irvine in 2006, is offering a “Friendsgiving Freebie” promotion through Wednesday (the restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving Day) in which customers who use the code “Friends” can buy one bowl and get one free.
This year, Veggie Grill has a vegan Turk’y Cranwich on the menu, made of seared prime roots black pepper Koji Turk’y with cranberry aioli, vegan gravy and homemade cranberry stuffing on grilled sourdough bread.
Veg Out magazine has a guide on where to pick up a vegan holiday meal in Los Angeles on its website at vegoutmag.com/food-and-drink/where-to-pick-up-a-vegan-thanksgiving-feast-in-los-angeles/.
The National Turkey Federation, a group formed in 1940 to market the animals as food, did not reply to a request for comment about the welfare of factory-farmed turkeys, but the group says on its website that turkeys are “raised in specially designed, environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and weather extremes. Except for breeding and transportation purposes, turkeys can roam freely within their house.”
The group further states that “the health and well-being of growing turkeys is top-of-mind for turkey growers as they routinely patrol barns in search of signs that could prove problematic. … To ensure animal welfare practices are upheld throughout the industry, the National Turkey Federation works closely with America’s turkey growers, veterinarians and industry experts to develop and maintain strict Standards of Conduct and Animal Care Guidelines for raising healthy birds in a safe environment at every stage of a turkey’s lifecycle. These standards align with ethical treatment of animals, production of wholesome quality meat, respect and value of our workers and the wise use of land and water resources.”