Photo by Mark Wilson/Newsmakers
President Obama is currently dealing with health care reform, two wars in the Middle East, skyrocketing unemployment, and the real possibility that Iran is harboring nukes. One could thus forgive the man for not yet responding to a petition sent to him by Farm Sanctuary, the farm animal rescue and welfare organization, asking him to deliver this years' "pardoned" White House Thanksgiving turkeys to its agrarian haven in Watkins Glen. NY. Still, I'm waiting to see what he does. In a symbolic way, it's meaningful.
A little background. Beginning with George H.W. Bush in 1989, Presidents have been sparing the lives of two White House turkeys at Thanksgiving time and sending them to various farms across Virginia. George Bush the Younger, however, bucked tradition in 2005 and sent the birds to either Disneyland or Disneyworld. There, they were crassly paraded about as holiday attractions, fed a conventional diet of cheap feed, and medically ignored. Half the birds died within a year. Writes Farm Sanctuary: "Disney's track record shows that it simply is not able to provide the level of care necessary to keep these birds healthy, happy and comfortable for years. "