Presidential Turkey Pardon

[Jasper]

I know this may be something that is a little strange to get excited about, but the two turkeys that are going to be part of the parade at WDW and the Presidential pardon in Washington DC were raised just about two miles from where I live. In addition, the owner of the turkeys happens to be an acquaintance of ours!!

Another neat aspect of the whole thing is that even though they are VERY big players in the national turkey industry the person selected really does run his business as a “family” business. Thus when you see the picture of the President shaking hands with the producer and you wonder who all those other people in the background are, it is the family of the producer.

And before you ask no, we were not able to get a trip to Washington D.C. or WDW out of the deal. We tried, but for some reason they think it is appropriate to take family over us! Can you imagine such a thing!! Just kidding of course. However, something I think is neat is that from what I understand Disney is paying for the family to come to WDW for the parade.

[disneydrmr]

I just read about this on the net... aren't the turkeys going to WDW for the parade also? That is how I read the report... but how exciting that you know them!

[Stan]

I have always thought the whole "President pardons a turkey" dealy is pretty funny and neat- perhaps because it sounds like the kind of thing I would invent if (expletive deleted) I became President. (Who knows what new traditions I would start?- but I bet 99% of them would be ignored by my successors. :blush:) Anyway, I like it when all the stuffiness and pomp can be put aside at least for a little while.

Must be nice to see a scene like that on TV and know some of the people personally. :yes:

[JPL]

I wonder how they feel about living in a place that sells smoked turkey legs as a snack :tasty:

[Scar]

I wonder how they feel about living in a place that sells smoked turkey legs as a snack :tasty:They're not Turkey, they're Emu. ;)

[Jasper]

I wonder how they feel about living in a place that sells smoked turkey legs as a snack :tasty:

Your comment just makes the whole idea of the President “pardoning” these two birds even funnier when you consider that this one single farm is going to send literally tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of turkeys to the processing plants each year. Of course, even after the President has “pardoned” these two birds do you think he will skip having the turkey when his family sits down to Thanksgiving dinner? Don’t get me wrong, it is a fun concept but really doesn’t do much in the whole scheme of things.

By the way, after doing the Washington D.C. thing and then the WDW parade these two birds will be sent to someplace in the northeast, I think maybe New Jersey, to live out the rest of their lives. However, considering how these things are genetically altered to be so huge their life expectancy is measured in months, not years.

[Jasper]

I want to correct something I said in my last post. In that post I said that the birds were going to spend the rest of their lives on a farm some place in the north east. As it turns starting this year the farm that used to take them is no longer able to do so for some reason. As a result, Disney has agreed to keep the birds at WDW after they do all the promotional things.

It has not yet been decided for sure where they are going but as of the last conversation I had with the family who raised the birds it is likely that the birds will go on display in a special cage at the Conservation Station at Animal Kingdom. This is all subject to change but this seems to be the most likely spot for them. For those that are not familiar with the name Conservation Station, it is the place at the end of the railroad ride in Animal Kingdom where the petting zoo and the veterinarian observation place is located.

[DisneyTwirler13!]

There was an article about the turkeys in the Orlando Sentinel this morning, and it said that this is the first time that the turkeys are going to WDW, because the past two times, they have gone to DL. Too bad our passes won't be renewed by tomorrow! :blush: :thumbsup:

[PirateLover]

Yeah, our paper did an article about last years pardoned Turkey and it said he was living at DL... Only problem was he was no longer alive! Jasper is right, due to the fact that they are bred to be food, they are not very healthy and do not live too much longer after they receive their "pardon."