AR-News: Turkeygate

[jim robertson]

Turkeygate

There is growing support for President Bush to honor the wild
turkey at Thanksgiving, instead of pardoning a domestic gobbler

By James A. Swan, Ph.D.
Author
"In Defense of Hunting"


In October 2002, I proposed in this column that President Bush should stop 
pardoning a domestic turkey on Thanksgiving and honor the holiday by 
releasing a wild turkey.

The ceremony began in l947, when President Harry Truman of Missouri, where 
today wild turkeys are more common than people, gave a "presidential pardon" 
to a live turkey on Thanksgiving eve. Succeeding presidents have continued 
the practice. President George W. Bush has pardoned a domestic turkey every 
year he has been in office.

The ceremonial gobblers that appear every fall for the Rose Garden ceremony 
are huge, flightless, obese domesticated birds donated by the National 
Turkey Federation, an organization of turkey farmers.

full story:
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/swan_james/1666640.html

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