Thursday, November 26, 2015

What Happens to Those Pardoned Turkeys

[This year's] turkeys were raised by Dr Jihad Douglas, whom Obama referred to simply as “Dr Douglas”.

  The Guardian
A wet dream for birthers. Barack Hussein Obama gets his turkeys from Jihad Douglas.

But what happens to the pardoned turkeys?
Over the years they’ve been sent to a variety of farms to live out their days in peace. This year, they’re headed to Turkey Hill Farm in Morven Park in Virginia, the same farm they were sent to in 2013 and 2014. Prior to that, between 2010 and 2012, the turkeys spent their final days at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. But that tradition was ended because it was not historically accurate, as Washington did not farm turkeys.

  The Guardian
Seriously, who complained about that? This is why more people don't get into politics.
From 2005 to 2009, the birds were sent to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland Resort in California, or the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. And for many years before that, they resided in Fairfax County, Virginia at the aptly named Frying Pan Park.
If those early turkeys knew the name of the "park" they were headed for, they wouldn't have thought much of their pardon. But, thankfully, turkeys don't understand English, nor human intentions, or they wouldn't eat so much.
“The birds are fed in such a way to increase their weight,” Norton told CNN. “[Americans] want a nice big breasted turkey and so they are fed high protein diet and they get quite large. The organs, though, that are in this bird are meant for a smaller bird. They just can’t handle the extra weight, so they end up living not as long [as wild turkeys].”

[...]

“The bird is bred for the table, not for longevity,” [Dean Norton, the director at Mount Vernon in charge of livestock] told CNN. “Some of [the pardoned turkeys] have been pretty short lived.”
From a few months to less than two years.
Popcorn, one of the turkeys pardoned in 2013, died the summer after his short stay at the White House from “something heat-related."
An oven?


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