Most of know almost nothing about today’ special bred, commercially produced Turkeys.

Renowned ethicist and eminent philosopher Peter Stringer gives a striking indictment of humanity’s treatment of other animals. Poultry industry marketing would have us believe that we purchase happy and humanely raised and slaughtered turkeys for Thanksgiving and also the default British Christmas centrepiece and takes you through the birth, life and death of the Turkey by warming our hearts towards what we often assume to be among the dumbest of beasts. He explains us that they are smart, self-aware and sociable creatures  that like to cuddle up with their best-friends.  Each has its own personality and the potential to have a rich and long life. He also offers a brief history of the turkey and its consumption, ridicules the annual U.S. presidential “pardon” of a Thanksgiving Turkey, and introduces to “a tremendously handsome, outgoing, and intelligent turkey” named Cornelius.

Commercial birds have been bred to have oversized breasts, they are able to mate naturally. The process of masturbating the males and then “raping “ the females with syringes or straws is enough to put anyone of their dinner.

All American turkeys are raised in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) – intensive factory farms for all of us.  Their beaks and claws are clipped without anaesthetic to avoid them attacking each other., which they do because of their unnatural, closely confined and restricted environment.

On the day of the slaughter there is mercifully quick neck-wringing. Starved to avoid “gastrointestinal splatter”, they are packed into too hot or too cold trucks and driven for hours without water to abattoirs.  When diseases such avian fly infect a CAFO and all the birds have to be put down, they can be killed by a method known in the industry as Ventilation Shutdown plus (VSD+), where air is cut off, heating turned up, and the flock slowly dies over the course of three or more long hours.

Often the meat debate is framed as a choice between carnivorousness and vegetarianism or veganism. 

He completes the book with some delicious recipes for turkey-free holiday feasting. “Consider the Turkey” will make your reconsider what you serve for your next holiday meal or even tomorrow’s dinner.

Consider the Turkey by Peter Singer, Princeton University Press £ 7.99/$9.95, 128 pages.