Not everyone feels gratitude

For most Americans, Thanksgiving represents a day of heavy eating, and perhaps football viewing and mental preparation for full-throttle shopping. I don't know what the schools teach children now, but when I was a child, we were taught that people in big hats and large-buckled shoes sat down at a table with Indians and enjoyed a meal. The Pilgrims, grateful for the help they had received during their settlement, wanted to return the Indians' hospitality.

Like most historical legends, the Thanksgiving one if flawed. Plymouth was once the site of a Pawtuxet village that was destroyed by a plague brought over by some pre-Pilgrim Europeans. Several Native Americans in the area had been sold as slaves, also. When the Pilgrims did arrive, there was tension between the Europeans and the native people, and eventually, a treaty was signed that did more to protect the Pilgrims than anything else, but it did bind both groups together in case of outside attack.

Here's where it gets nasty. In 1637, 16 years after the first Indian-white men feast, the governor of Massachusetts proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the massacre by English colonists of 600 Pequots who, incidentally, had just agreed to become Christians. Eventually, the treaty of 1621 was nullified, the Indians became subjects of the English government, and the colonists took over much of what had been the native people's territory.

The first Native American National Day of Mourning took place in 1970, when Frank James, Wampanoag leader, was invited to speak. However, when someone got a peek at the text of his speech--an angry statement about the history of oppression of Native Americans--the invitation was withdrawn. Like all suppression of speech, this act fueled a movement: the National Day of Mourning movement, which is observed by many Native Americans each Thanksgiving.

Today, we do not slaughter Native Americans; we merely repress them. However, we do slaughter thousands of turkeys, which brings me to the other ugly truth about Thanksgiving. Factory farm turkeys live in extremely cramped, foul-smelling conditions, breathing toxic manure fumes. The birds frequently end up with fractured or broken bones, and the young ones--deprived of their mothers--often starve to death.

In tight confinement, a lot of feather-pecking takes place, so farmers do to turkeys what they do to chickens--trim their beaks, but without the use of anesthesia. The birds' environment is dark, and they can hardly move. And now that factory farms are breeding top-heavy turkeys (the demand for breast meat is high), the turkeys are more likely to suffer bone and joint problems.

The workers who handle the turkeys do so carelessly, often breaking their legs and wings. The turkeys are transported in open crates, regardless of weather conditions, then hung upside down in shackles (including the already injured ones), where they are stunned before having their throats slit. They are then dropped into scalding tanks of water. And as with chickens, there are many reports of inaccurate stunning, so that turkeys end up conscious when their throats are cut, and sometimes even when they hit the scalding water. The Humane Slaughter (a phrase which would amuse me if it didn't make me sick) Act, which is poorly enforced to begin with, conveniently omits poultry.

Many of us do not think it is right to eat other creatures. Most people, however, think that it is an acceptable thing to do. And there are non-factory, organic farms that raise turkeys who are not confined to crates, do not have their beaks cut, breathe fresh air, socialize with other turkeys, and eat good food. They are slaughtered carefully and not tortured.

If you are a turkey eater, there are plenty of turkeys available that did not suffer horrible lives prior to their very inhumane slaughter.