Animal of the Month

1. Turkeys are unique individuals with distinct personalities. They can be affectionate and friendly and have bad moods, just as we do.
   
   
2. Turkeys love to play football!
   
   
3. Almost all turkeys who are bred to be killed for their meat live inside filthy factory farm sheds with no fresh air, sunlight, grass or room to move around.
   
   
4. Many thousands of turkeys live in agonising pain, standing on deformed legs or broken bones before they are killed.
   
5. Turkeys like company and will often seek out a human companion to sit with, even climbing into a lap for a cuddle!
   
   
6. In 2002, a turkey on her way to slaughter escaped her cage, jumped from the truck and dodged two lanes of fast-moving traffic. She found her way to a sanctuary and lived out the rest of her life in a loving, caring place. She was called Beau.
   
7. Another turkey called Terence escaped from a Hampshire farm and walked 5 kilometres to a sanctuary, where he befriended an owl called Bins. The pair became inseparable.
   
   
8. Forty million turkeys are killed in the UK every year just because people like the taste of their flesh.
   
   
9. Turkeys befriend chickens, too, and in cold weather the chickens can often be found nestled beneath a large turkey wing for warmth.
   
   
10. Poet Benjamin Zephaniah wrote a poem called “Talking Turkeys”:

Talking Turkeys

Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos turkeys jus wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don’t eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate an not on yu plate
Say, Yo! Turkey, I’m on your side.

I got lots of friends who are turkeys
An all of dem fear christmas time,
Dey wanna enjoy it, dey say humans destroyed it
An humans are out of dere mind,
Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeys
Dey all hav a right to a life,
Not to be caged up and genetically made up
By any farmer an his wife.

Turkeys jus wanna play reggae
Turkeys jus wanna hip-hop
Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying,
“I cannot wait for de chop”.
Turkeys like getting presents, dey wanna watch christmas tv,
Turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain
In many ways like yu an me.

I once knew a turkey called … Turkey
He said, “Benji explain to me please,
Who put de turkey in christmas
An what happens to christmas trees?”
I said, “I am not too sure, turkey
But it’s got nothing to do wid Christ Mass
Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be
An business men mek loadsa cash”.

Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
Invite dem indoors fe sum greens
Let dem eat cake an let dem partake
In a plate of organic grown beans,
Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
An spare dem de cut of de knife,
Join Turkeys United an dey’ll be delighted
An yu will mek new friends “FOR LIFE”.