peta2 turned Los Angeles' 101 highway into the freeway of love for turkeys. A group of precocious pilgrims and one tenacious turkey asked rush-hour drivers to bury the hatchet: 

Show turkeys some love this Thanksgiving. Drop the pedal and go, go, go get yourself a delicious Tofurky roast.

After learning that the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County in Connecticut had put out an urgent call for Thanksgiving food donations following Hurricane Sandy, PETA has sent the hunger-relief organization 20 delicious vegan Tofurky roasts.

© MeetTheShannons.net

Vegan Food: The Taste of Kindness

PETA's donation should make the season brighter (and healthier) for the region's hungry as well as for animals. PETA also hopes the Tofurky will offer food for thought, showing that compassion knows no species barriers.

More than 250 million turkeys are killed in the U.S. every year—45 million for Thanksgiving dinners alone. Yet turkeys are sensitive, smart, social, and resourceful birds, who deserve to be treated as living beings, not centerpieces.

Tofurky and other vegan faux turkey provide great alternatives, savory taste, and plentiful protein, with none of the cruelty or cholesterol that comes from eating real birds.

What You Can Do

Delicious, healthy vegan foods offer both hungry humans and exploited animals reason to give thanks. Enjoy fine vegan holiday dining with PETA's free recipes. 

Thanksgiving is hell for turkeys. To make sure as many folks get this message as possible, here are three of our best holiday ads. Pick your favorite and share with friends to let them know why they should give turkeys a reason to be thankful, too:

 "Would You Eat Your Dog?"

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"Turkey Terror"

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 "Grace"

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Give everyone—including animals—something to be thankful for this holiday season by celebrating with a vegan feast. 

Have a run-in with the wrong people in Chicago and you could be dead meat. But have a run-in with the right people in Chicago and you could be free of dead meat. Miss Chicago, Marisa Buchheit, is helping people in her city stop commissioning mob hits on turkeys by hosting a pre-Thanksgiving vegan dinner to show off the best of Chi-Town's turkey-free fare.

© Jimmy Fishbein

Chicagoans were invited to meet the vegan beauty and sample the vegan bounty at the famous Chicago Diner. Marisa, who went vegan at age 12 to stop contributing to animal suffering, presented veggie turkey roast with country gravy, pumpkin ravioli, "beefy" Wellington, herb stuffing, holiday sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, green beans amandine, and dairy-free pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake. "I'm all about the amazing vegan food this city has to offer, and I think people are inspired by the fact that there is a pageant girl who likes to eat—delicious vegan food, at that," she said.

It's easy to whip up a meat-free Thanksgiving meal at home, but for people who would rather spend their holiday lounging than cooking, The Chicago Diner has an offer they can't refuse: The entire spread is available for carryout.

© Jimmy Fishbein

And turkeys are hoping people gobble up the diner's veggie turkey roast because even a turkey who messed with Al Capone wouldn't have gotten it as bad as the ones killed in today's slaughterhouses. Workers hang the turkeys upside down by slamming their often broken legs into shackles and then drag the birds through an electric water bath that immobilizes but doesn't kill them. Many of the birds dodge the tank and are still conscious when their throats are slashed. And if they're still alive when they reach the feather-removal tank, they are scalded to death in hot water.

It's time for Chicagoans—and everyone else—to send their meat habit the way of Jimmy Hoffa and indulge in a delicious turkey-free meal this Thanksgiving.

We all know that dead bodies should be buried, not eaten. So PETA is making Thanksgiving tables a little more relevant this year. We're offering teens these miniature tombstones to stick into the plucked turkey on the table:

If adults think tombstones are too macabre a sight for Thanksgiving, kids can tell them that what's really disturbing is that the decaying corpse in the middle of the table was once a gentle, smart bird until someone filling an order for a holiday meal shackled the bird upside down and slit his or her throat. 

Thanks to honest young people armed with the facts, maybe next year people will give turkeys something to be thankful for.

Young people can request their free turkey tombstones from peta2. 

Do you know folks who eat turkey breasts? What about terrier breasts?

A new billboard that PETA is working to place near public schools in Ottawa; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, asks children to consider why they call one animal "family" and another "dinner":

Turkey: ©iStockphoto.com/James Steidl | Dog: ©iStockphoto.com/Eric Isselee

Like dogs, turkeys are highly curious and love to scout out new sights and smells. And like dogs, turkeys are highly social animals who enjoy the company of humans and even like to have their feathers stroked. They are also devoted parents, and in nature, chicks stay with their mothers for a full year.

But on factory farms, turkeys spend nearly their entire lives crammed into stinking, windowless sheds. The only human touch they experience is when workers chop off parts of their beaks and toes and the males' snoods without any pain relief. Turkey eggs are hatched in an incubator, and the chicks never see their mothers. They are less than a year old when they are shipped to the slaughterhouse, where workers slam their legs into shackles and drag them through a "stunning tank" that immobilizes but doesn't kill them and a blade slits their throats.

As Thanksgiving approaches, please repost the image of this poignant billboard and ask your friends this: If you wouldn't pay someone to torment and kill your dog, why pay people to torment and kill a turkey?

Ask anyone on the PETA staff and they can tell you about lots of people—even hard-nosed, stalwart, meat-eating relatives—who've seen one little video clip and changed their minds about turkeys. Help everyone opt for that delicious Tofurky instead of a slice of contaminated dead turkey by cuing up one of our funny little PETA Thanksgiving public service announcements (PSAs) to provide helpful insight into why a cruelty-free feast is the way to go.

Philadelphia and Baltimore may be a little safer after PETA members worked tirelessly to get baby-killers off the streets—the killers of baby turkeys, that is.

A baby doll bedecked with frills served as the centerpiece for this eerie Thanksgiving dinner, making the point that farmers drug and breed turkeys to grow so fast that most are only months old when they are slammed upside down into metal shackles, only to have their throats slit. (What kind of job is that? But who pays someone to do it? The consumer!)

But as we hear out there, ever more people are turning to a meal that celebrates life and spares a turkey, not "pardons" one. After all, what crime could a baby have committed?

Some years ago, when I interned at a sanctuary for farmed animals, I'd sit in the barn, and a turkey named Fern would back up into my lap and demand to be petted. When I'd stop, she'd look over her shoulder imploringly as if to say, "More, please." I always think of Fern at this time of year, when supermarket bins are filled with the frozen bodies of her relatives. If people got a chance to know these interesting and personable birds, I believe they'd balk at baking and eating their wings, legs, and breasts.

Turkeys on farmed-animal sanctuaries quickly prove themselves to be intelligent and industrious as well as outgoing at times and shy at other times, much like human children. Sitting in the barn, the birds' distinct personalities were immediately clear. Some, bold and hilarious, would walk right up and look me square in the eye as if to challenge my right to invade their space. Others, like a coy debutante, would peer over their shoulders, aloof but not wanting to miss anything exciting. Many, like Fern, would purr when petted.

This Thanksgiving, please take a moment to reflect: Can the fleeting pleasure of a meal justify the immeasurable pain and suffering of a bird who didn't want to die? Give turkeys like Fern a reason to purr. Stuff yourself with mashed potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and other vegan goodies and leave the birds alone.

Via Newsday

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

You know what they say: The key to a man's heart is through his … stomach. Our sexy pilgrims, who are touring New England this week, can attest to that and more. Obviously, they attract a crowd, largely because of the delicious, free Tofurkys they're handing out. In fact, the Tofurkys flew off the table—with men and women gobbling them up—within 20 minutes in Bangor, Maine.

The pilgrims also gave out PETA's free vegetarian/vegan starter kits and told passersby that every year in the U.S., 40 million gentle, inquisitive turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving dinners alone.

In nature, turkeys are protective and loving parents as well as fast, cunning runners who are able to outwit their pursuers. But the turkey industry crams the birds into windowless warehouses and genetically manipulates them to grow so large that their legs are often unable to withstand the birds' weight. Countless birds slowly starve to death within inches of food after they become crippled and are unable to move.

PETA's sexy pilgrims will be docking in New Haven today and Providence tomorrow. Even if you aren't lucky enough to grab a Tofurky from these lovely ladies, you can get tips on serving up a cruelty-free feast at our "Living" page.