Plumer: Pardoning Turkeys Is Dumb

WaPo‘s Brad Plumer points out the ridiculousness of pardoning turkeys every Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, the National Turkey Foundation will carry two plump male turkeys over to the White House and lift them onto a table. President Obama will give them goofy names like Caramel and Popcorn. Then Obama will “pardon” the turkeys and, instead of lopping off their heads and tossing them in an oven, he will let them live out the rest of their lives at the estate in Mount Vernon.

Here are some reasons:

• It’s not even a real tradition! The National Turkey Federation has donated two turkeys to the White House every year since 1947. Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower did the sensible thing and simply ate the birds. No pardons there.
• The pardoned turkeys aren’t that much better off — because the life of a turkey is misery and pain. This is going to get gruesome, and I’m sorry about that. But modern-day domestic turkeys aren’t bred to have a happy life. They’re raised to be as fat as possible so that they can be slaughtered as soon as possible and produce the greatest volume of delicious turkey meat.
• It’s a mockery of the presidential pardon, which is an all-too neglected issue. Maybe this isn’t surprising, since the turkey pardon was basically invented as a way of mocking presidential pardons. Still, it’s worth mentioning.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.