Tofurky ® is a pre-cooked vegetarian feast designed to be the delicious centerpiece of your holiday or everyday meal. Made from a revolutionary tofu-wheat protein blend, Tofurky is known for its incredible, turkey-like texture and flavor.
Posted on 11/21/2001 4:37:34 AM PST by wbill
Arlington, Va. (CNSNews.com) - Trading the Thanksgiving turkey for Tofu? That's what representatives from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were urging Americans to do Tuesday.
"We are asking people to have a compassionate Thanksgiving by substituting turkey for one of the alternatives, like Tofurky, UnTurkey or Tofu Turkey," PETA spokesperson Bruce Friedrich said at Washington's Reagan National Airport.
PETA workers Kristie Phelps and Lina Choudhury, who braved the 50-degree weather wearing only bikinis made of plastic lettuce leaves, handed out pamphlets explaining the conditions at the nation's turkey farms. They asked airport workers and travelers to try a vegetarian or vegan (foods that contain no animal products) meal instead of the traditional Thanksgiving turkey.
"I want to appeal to holiday travelers to ask them to go vegan this Thanksgiving," Phelps said. "Fifty million turkeys each year are slaughtered for Thanksgiving after living their lives in unhealthy, inhumane conditions."
PETA claims turkey farms force the birds to spend their lives in filthy, overcrowded sheds, where heart attacks, contagious diseases, and skeletal deformities run rampant, and where the animals are bred and drugged to produce abnormal amounts of flesh.
The group says its appeal is also aimed at individuals concerned about their health and diet. According to PETA, turkey flesh is loaded with fat and cholesterol, and many nutrition experts fear the antibiotics and other chemicals fed to turkeys are passed on to humans who eat the animals.
The campaign has garnered some high profile support. Martin Sheen, the star of NBC's The West Wing, has spoken out against conditions at turkey farms. Also, PETA has shipped faux turkey products to almost 100 homeless shelters across the country.
The PETA campaign had some immediate effect on those who read the pamphlets. Airline worker Kenneth Brown said the information made him reconsider his Thanksgiving menu.
"I'm sure not going to eat turkey this Thanksgiving," he said. "After reading about the way that turkeys are held in captivity until they're slaughtered, it's sad. It's just a poor bird."
John Green, an airport security guard, said he was impressed with PETA's methods of spreading their message.
"I'm not even touching turkey this year," he said. "In fact, I'm not going to be able to even look at a turkey this year.
"They sure know how to get their point across," Green said.
However, another traveler, admittedly entertained by the press conference, said she was unwilling to give up turkey.
"I thought the lettuce bikinis were cute," said Mateel Todd, who claimed to be supportive of PETA on some issues. "But their campaign is not going to stop me from being a meat eater. I believe that animals raised for food can be treated ethically.
"Besides, I'm originally from Montana, and I would encourage everyone to eat Montana beef," she said.
David Almasi, spokesman for the National Center for Public Policy Research, said PETA chose the wrong holiday to criticize.
"PETA has to remember that this is a holiday based on the Pilgrims and the Indians working together to overcome the adversity of the harsh winter, and celebrating that they have been able to work with the earth to sustain themselves and the earth," he said. "If anything, this is one of the greatest, [politically correct] holidays as far as the environment is concerned."
Almasi added that Tuesday's press conference is just one of PETA's many moves to publicize itself and gain national recognition.
"It is just another attempt by PETA to get into the press," Almasi said. "One thing you can say about them is that they are a constant P.R. machine, and they have some genius people working there to make sure that every event in our lives affects their animal rights campaign."
For myself, I think it is very compassionate to save turkeys from the difficulties of life in the wild by sheltering them in turkey hotels, feeding them on the best so they can grow fat, free of all fear and insecurity. I wonder if any of those PETA people have ever bothered to watch wild turkeys to see how they fare with all their natural predators and how they're killed.
I will have a compassionate Thanksgiving by compassionately giving a turkey its reason to live and giving the good people a Buterball reason to keep the turkeys safe for another year instead of letting them out into the wild.
Shalom.
These are incredibly fowl sounding to me.
PEOPLE for the EATING of TASTE ANIMALS
I plain to eat a some turkey and some rabbit and duck go shoot this season.
Somehow, I'll miss all these turkey threads after tomorrow. I can't imagine what you'll be making for Christmas.
Thanksgiving is about liberty, joy and life. But the 340 million turkeys raised in the United States each year for our holiday tables experience none of these. They are forced to breathe toxic fumes in crowded sheds as their beaks and toes are cut off to reduce damage from stress-induced aggression. After 16 weeks of agony, they are hung by their legs on a conveyer belt and beheaded by an electric saw while fully conscious.
Thanksgiving is about sharing. But the grain fed to turkeys denies lifesaving foodstuffs to millions of starving people.
Thanksgiving is about a bountiful harvest, but raising grain for turkeys involves depletion of topsoil and groundwater essential to a good harvest.
Prepare dishes from the bounty of our harvest: grains, vegetables and fruits. Replace misery, disease and death with joy, good health and life.
BRAD BILLINGS
BINGHAMTON
This guy is claiming "340 million turkeys" and PETA is claiming "50 million." Quite a discrepency. I think Brad is using the "Mitch Snyder method" of counting.
Tofurky ® is a pre-cooked vegetarian feast designed to be the delicious centerpiece of your holiday or everyday meal. Made from a revolutionary tofu-wheat protein blend, Tofurky is known for its incredible, turkey-like texture and flavor.
Oh darn, never mind, I just remembered we didn't buy a whole turkey this year, just the breast.
The only catch is that you need to do it outside. Do it inside, and you'll paint the interior of the house with a nice patina of grease.
"Washington — With Vice President Dick Cheney cutting back on cholesterol and "first niece" Lauren Bush touting the benefits of her vegetarian diet, PETA has high hopes that vegetarianism will take root in the White House and has delivered a delicious Tofurky to President Bush, complete with all the trimmings."
Were these PETA idiots wearing leather shoes?
I wonder if these idiots actually read and think about what they write, before they put it on paper.
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