Remember that time of year when you had your family over, and your mom was scrambling to get the pies and stuffing cooked?
Then your family was there sitting at the table waiting to eat. And finally the main dish comes out, the Holiday turkey.
Turkey is dead, but rewind this scene about 14 months back. That is where the story begins, it is the beginning of a turkey’s life. It is the beginning of the long journey that most turkeys in the US will go through. It’s the journey from the egg to the dinner table.
A few weeks before the turkey hatches, the female turkey is artificially inseminated. This is ensure the maximum number of fertilized eggs.
When the chick is finally formed it will be hatched from its shell. Almost immediately after the young turkeys will be be put on a conveyor belt and each will be stamped with a number. The birds are then put into a huge warehouse crowded with thousands of other turkeys. This is where they will spend their remaining days, before the slaughter.
If they are lucky then each animal will have about three square feet of room. This is about smaller than the surface area of a bath tub.
To keep turkeys from hurting each other their beaks and nails are cut off. This makes it very painful to walk and eat food.
To keep up with the demand for bigger and better turkeys, these domesticated turkeys have been genetically bred to grow two times as big and two times as fast as their wild counterparts. So big in fact that they are unable to fly, and many suffer from heart defects, foot and joint problems.
To ensure the turkeys reach their maximum weight potential most are fed a controlled diet of soybeans, corn and vitamin infused water.
For the next 12-14 weeks of the turkey’s life this is how they will live, crowded in a warehouse, where a lot of them will die before ever leaving from disease or starvation.
When the turkeys have reached their maximum weight of about 12-14 pounds they will be put in crates and shipped off to the slaughter house.
Here they will be roughly taken out off the truck and tied upside down on on a chain. From here they will move down the line. Since turkeys are excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act, they are not knocked out prior to being killed. They are killed in a factory with an machine knife, but sometimes the blade misses the turkey or cuts it in the wrong place. If this happens then the turkey will be boiled alive.
After the turkey has been properly gutted and the only thing that is left is the bone and meat, then the turkey will washed and the process of packaging will start.
They will first be put through a chiller. Then will come out on a conveyor belt. Each turkey will then be separately packed in a plastic bag. They will the be wrapped in another plastic wrap that will display the brand name. In some cases the turkey bag will then have a third layer of plastic net over it to give the product a uniform look.
After this the turkey will either be shipped to the store fresh or will be frozen and shipped later.
Finally, the turkey will be picked up by the consumer, cooking and served at the holiday dinner table.
