The Turkey & Thanksgiving Myth | Best Indian American Magazine | San Jose CA

The historical past of Thanksgiving has change into a hotly contested matter. Many consider the heartwarming story of European settlers and natives celebrating their profitable harvest, immortalized in American myths for generations, by no means occurred. Some Native American tribes just like the United American Indians of New England  see Thanksgiving as a day of mourning for the genocide of natives.

A whole bunch of years later, by persevering with to have a good time Thanksgiving by slaughtering turkeys once we don’t even know for positive if these birds had been on the menu within the first Thanksgiving dinner, we’re perpetuating a tradition of violence and validating the bloodshed that has marred the historical past of Native People.

Thanksgiving turkeys — the 46 million of them that aren’t fortunate sufficient to be pardoned by the President–  are pressured to stay in cramped cages which are too small to even flap their wings, their toes and beaks are lower off with out painkillers, and they’re killed in essentially the most inhumane method possible as a PETA investigation reveals. That is unlucky, however not stunning  as a result of there aren’t even minimal federal requirements governing how turkeys stay or die, as turkeys are exempt from the federal Humane Strategies of Slaughter Act.

Whereas we flip a blind eye to the abuse of animals in slaughterhouses, as a society we now have been very vocal in condemning these accused of animal abuse outdoors the slaughterhouse.

Soccer participant Michael Vick continues to be hated to this day for participating in unlawful canine preventing.

The response to those animal abuses is comprehensible and laudable, however how are these of us who condoned the abuse of our Thanksgiving turkeys any completely different?

There isn’t a morally coherent distinction between the canine who was kicked and the rooster, pig, cow or turkey that most individuals will eat immediately. How is it that People, so solicitous of the animals they preserve as pets, are so detached towards those they prepare dinner for dinner?

Norm Phelps, in his ebook Changing the Game: Why The Battle For Animal Liberation Is So Hard And How It Can Be Won notes that our paradoxical values about killing animals for meals might be defined by the precept of bounded ethicality.When a perception conflicts with a habits that individuals are motivated to keep up resulting from self curiosity, cultural norms and so forth, most people will discover a method to persuade themselves that their moral ideas don’t apply to their very own habits.

Maybe because of this tales about canine meat market in China and slaughtering dolphins in Japan result in overwhelming outrage in the social media, principally within the type of feedback calling “these folks” barbaric by those that have don’t bat an eyelid in direction of the inhumane remedy of animals culturally deemed worthy of consumption.

It’s time for us to look at our basic views about animal ethics, to have a look at ourselves within the mirror and ask, “are we actually much less barbaric than ‘these folks’ who kill dolphins or eat canines?”

Many omnivores vehemently defend their option to eat meat by rhetorically asking why we must always fear about animals when so many individuals are ravenous . Sarcastically, human hunger is simply one more reason to reconsider elevating animals for meals. Yearly about 760 million tons of meals is fed to livestock. Of this huge amount, solely a fraction of energy is consumed as meat, whereas about 40 million tons of meals grains can finish essentially the most excessive circumstances of human hunger.

Vegetarianism is on the rise. A examine profiled in a latest New York Times piece finds that 12% of Millennials have now embraced a vegetarian life-style, as in comparison with 4% Gen X’ers,  and 1% of  Child Boomers.

We should always embrace the anti-animal cruelty motion. Persevering with to perpetuate the violence, abuse and bloodshed  that marred our historical past 400 yr in the past appears unimaginative, medieval and albeit not in step with a progressive society we aspire to change into. Let’s not power turkeys to stay a brief, merciless and thankless life and as a substitute endeavor to create new traditions based mostly on considerate reflection, reasoning and compassion.

Spending a minute to ask ourselves what the turkeys should be glad about on Thanksgiving is  not an excessive amount of to do for the sake of the hen you’ll be carving up for dinner.

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Ashwin Murthy is a contract author and a Silicon Valley based mostly software program engineer. 

Picture by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed inside this text are the private opinions of the creator. The information and opinions showing within the article don’t mirror the views of India Currents and India Currents doesn’t assume any accountability or legal responsibility for a similar.

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