Thanksgiving. most female turkeys are used for Thanksgiving. They get a faster turn over on the farms with the females, as they grow faster than the males. Most male turkey meat is used for deli products and turkey burgers, as they can get up to 35 lbs. , which is way to big to fit in an oven. Males ARE called Toms, Females called HENS, younger birds are called JAKES. Females also have more meat on them for the size they are. Females do cost more than a male, but again, most turkeys are females.
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Like pets.

Turkeys have personalities too, just as dogs and cats do. According to Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage, turkeys are social and playful. Of course, Mr and Mrs Wickersham, who took in Genevieve, a rescued turkey, could tell you that.

Genevieve comes when she is called, loves classical music and dances to the flute.

Turkeys relish having their feathers stroked and will "sing" along to their favourite tunes.

2. Fear Factories

In factory farms, turkeys are crowded together so tightly that flapping a wing or stretching a leg is close to impossible. To prevent stress-induced fighting, their beaks are often cut off with a red-hot blade. At the abattoir, the birds are stunned by having their heads plunged into an electrically-charged water bath, but some birds are not rendered unconscious and are scalded to death in the defeathering tank.

3. Don't Be a Butterball!

There is no fibre in turkey meat, but there is cholesterol �¢?? a whopping 83 mg in a 112 g serving, which also contains 8.3 g of fat, including 2.4 g of saturated fat. Turkey is not a "health" food compared to truly healthy foods such as beans, veggies, fruits, grains and nuts. Research has shown that meat-eaters are a whopping 50 per cent more likely to develop heart disease and nine times more likely to be obese than vegans.

4. Bird Flu Blues

Experts warn that a virulent new strain of bird flu could spread to humans. Cooking a turkey can adequately kill bacteria and viruses, but even a little of what makes you ill can lurk on cutting boards and utensils and thus spread to hands or foods that won't be cooked.


5. Turkey-Free, Cholesterol-Free Tasty Treats

If you want the taste of turkey without the ethical dilemma or cholesterol, there is a cornucopia of turkey alternatives, including Redwood Foods' Cheatin' Roast Turkey and Celebration Roast, which comes ready-sliced with gravy and gourmet sausages wrapped in Streaky Style Vegetarian Rashers. Realeat Veggie Roast comes with stuffing and can be topped with Redwood's Cheatin' Bacon.


6. Foul Farming

Anyone who has driven by a factory farm has probably smelled it first from a mile away. Turkeys and other animals raised for food produce tons of excrement, all without the benefit of waste-treatment systems. The methane gas produced by turkey waste pollutes the air and contributes to global warming.

8. Feed the World

Millions of people go hungry and thirsty in the developing world while grain and water are squandered on the developed world's factory farms. Why should we feed grain to turkeys to produce meat when many more people could be fed if the grain was fed directly to them?
9. Give the Turkeys Something to Celebrate!
Let's face it: If you're eating a turkey, that's a corpse on your table, and if you don't eat it quickly enough, it will decompose. Is that really what we want as the centerpiece of a holiday meal: an animal's dead and decaying carcass? Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, so why not extend those sentiments to turkeys too?

10. What's Bugging You?

There are all sorts of killer bacteria found in turkey flesh, including salmonella and campylobacter. The government's Food Standards Agency has written a detailed 1,000-word guide for cooking turkeys in an attempt to reduce the large number of people who contract debilitating (and sometimes fatal) food poisoning every year.

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