PETA's big turkey abuse investigation that broke last month has taken a dramatic turn. The corporation responsible for the abuse (Avigen, Inc.) has fired what they claimed to be "all involved personnel." This is great news! Hopefully these guys can seek some counseling to deal with their violent perversions. Here's a few horrific highlights from the Avigen, Inc. investigation:

• Employees stomped on turkeys' heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, and struck turkeys' heads against metal scaffolding.
• Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat.
  
• A supervisor said he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s.
  
• One man said he saw a coworker fatally inject turkey semen and sulfuric acid into turkeys' heads.
  

It is not enough to merely fire these employees because, truth be told, the incident was not perpetrated by a few bad apples. Animal abuse at Avigen and other factory farms is endemic.

Ask Avigen to adopt PETA's 7 Point Animal Welfare Plan and help end the needless suffering.

I took this from PETA's Blog because I thought it was very cool. I hope everyone out there is enjoying your Tofurkies today.

Written by Bruce Friedrich

Did Sarah Palin's recent interview in front of a turkey-slaughter operation almost cause you to lose your lunch? If so, you're not alone. Even conservative pundit Joe Scarborough says he may well skip the bird this year. With Thanksgiving upon us, here without further ado are PETA's top 10 reasons to pardon a turkey this holiday season:

10. If you wouldn't eat your cat, you shouldn't eat a turkey.
As poultry scientist Tom Savage says, "I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings. The 'dumb' tag simply doesn't fit." They're as interesting and have personalities every bit as developed as those of any dog or cat.

When they're not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dust baths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees. These social, playful birds relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes.

9. Factory farms deny turkeys everything that is natural and important to them.
Ben Franklin called turkeys "true American originals." He had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty. In nature, turkeys can fly 55 miles an hour, run 25 miles an hour, and live up to four years. Yet turkeys raised for food are killed when they are only 5 or 6 months old. During their short lives, they will be denied even the simplest pleasures, such as running, building nests, and raising their young.

8. Turkey consumption might kill you.
Turkey flesh is brimming with fat and cholesterol. Just one homemade patty of ground, cooked turkey meat contains a whopping 244 mg of cholesterol, and half of its calories come from fat. Turkey flesh is also frequently tainted with salmonella, campylobacter bacteria, and other contaminants. And a vegan meal won't leave you sprawled on the couch, belt buckle undone, barely able to move.

7. You may stave off bird flu apocalypse.
Current factory-farm conditions are breeding grounds for disease. Turkeys are drugged and bred to grow so quickly that many become crippled and die from dehydration. Cooking meat should kill the bird flu virus, but it can be left behind on cutting boards and utensils and spread through something else you're eating.

6. Don't support their crack habit.
Dosing turkeys with antibiotics to stimulate their growth and to keep them alive in filthy, disease-ridden conditions that would otherwise kill them poses even more risks for people who eat them. Leading health organizations—including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association—have warned that the factory farming industry is possibly creating long-term risks to human health through the spread of antibiotic-resistant supergerms. That's why the use of drugs to promote growth in animals used for food has been banned for many years in Europe.

5. There are healthy, humane alternatives.
Everyone can give thanks for animal-friendly holiday meals such as Tofurky, Celebration Roast, and Garden Protein's new Veggie Turkey Breast With Wild Rice and Cranberry Stuffing. PETA's scrumptious holiday recipes will please every palate and make it easier to give up the giblets.

4. Eating birds supports cruelty to animals.
When the time comes for slaughter, turkeys are thrown into transport trucks. At the slaughterhouse, they are hung upside-down and their heads are dragged through an electrified "stunning tank," which immobilizes them but does not kill them. Many birds dodge the tank and are still conscious when their throats are cut. If the knife fails to properly cut the birds' throats, the birds are scalded to death in the defeathering tanks.

3. Turkey consumption is bad for the environment.
Turkeys and other animals raised for food produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population—all without the benefit of waste-treatment systems. There are no federal guidelines to regulate how factory farms treat, store, and dispose of the trillions of pounds of concentrated, untreated animal excrement that they produce each year.

2. Turkey farming contributes to human starvation.
Turkeys have to be fed grains, soy, oats, and corn that could otherwise be fed to human beings. Only a fraction of the calories fed to a turkey are turned into meat calories. While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is.

And the number one reason to give the birds a break:

1. Factory-farmed turkeys have nothing to be thankful for.
On factory farms, turkeys live for months in sheds where they are packed so tightly that flapping a wing or stretching a leg is nearly impossible. They stand mired in waste; urine and ammonia fumes burn their eyes and lungs. To keep the birds from killing one another in these crowded conditions, parts of the turkeys' toes and beaks are cut off, as are the males' snoods (the flap of skin under the chin). All this is done without any pain relievers.

A PETA investigator recently went undercover at a massive turkey-breeding facility in West Virginia and documented workers stomping on turkeys, punching them, beating them with pipes and boards, and twisting their necks repeatedly. One worker even bragged about shoving a broomstick down a turkey's throat because the bird had pecked at him. Our previous investigations show that such gratuitous abuse is the norm on turkey farms.

Check out VegCooking.com for tasty alternatives that will allow the turkeys to give thanks this Holiday season along with you and your family.

Happy eating!

What were your favorite recipes this Thanksgiving?

Wired Science is reporting on the rise of genetically modified foods that many will be eating this holiday season. It turns out that modern turkeys in particular are modified to be over 121% larger than they were in 1967. Food lovers and historians argue that though the size has increased dramatically the flavor has actually got worse. Dang, murder doesn't taste as good as it used to.

This bizarre practice has become the industry standard as people want to feel like their getting more food for their money. Considering how much meat eaters spend on health care, sounds like their actually getting the worse deal.

If you want a cholesterol free, organic, and non-GMO holiday then pick up one of these...

Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey today moments before it had its throat cut and head twisted off by a deranged employee of Triple D Farms. All this took place on camera as Palin spoke to the press.

Read more.

I'm speechless and feel like i want to throw up.

Gearing up for Thanksgiving, turkey farmers in West Virginia are busy stomping on heads and twisting necks for the holiday rush. PETA today released video from an undercover investigation that shows workers crushing the heads of turkeys and twisting their necks to kill them for processing.

Watch more videos at PETA.org

The perpetrators, Aviagen, say they “condemn the abuse” and will punish those involved.

Something tells me these people cannot be taken at their word. Their website lists their company motto as "Innovation Lives On." I didn't realize that crushing the skull of a living being was considered innovative.

Be sure to send the workers at Aviagen some holiday cheer of your own by letting them know you saw what they did and you're not going to let it happen anymore (link).