Does the production and consumption of the Thanksgiving turkey involve animal abuse? First let's define what animal abuse is. Animal abuse is “any act that contributes to the pain, suffering, or unnatural death of animals or that otherwise threatens or harms their well-being. Animal abuse can be physical, sexual, psychological or emotional. It may involve active mistreatment or passive neglect or omission. It can be direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional." (Classroom lesson) In this essay we will examine why the production and consumption of the Thanksgiving turkey is considered animal abuse and how these types of abuse occur, from being born and raised on factory farms to being slaughtered in slaughterhouses. no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to research conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), factory farms raise more than 228 million turkeys each year in the United States, and of those millions, approximately 87 million turkeys are slaughtered and eaten during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The living conditions in which turkeys are born are said to be inhumane. Thousands of these turkeys spend months at a time crammed into dark sheds with no more than 3.5 square feet per bird. This causes them both physical and emotional harm because they don't have enough space to run and causes them stress and health problems because they are literally trapped in one place. Since they are crowded together, some turkeys will begin to peck each other to death and so, to prevent these behaviors, farm workers will cut off parts of the turkeys' toes and the top of their beaks. They would also cut off the snood of male turkeys. You might assume that some type of painkillers are used with these types of procedures, but the fact is that they don't use anything like that during these procedures. There have been reports of farmers using some form of drug and antibiotics that would genetically manipulate the bird's genome so that the bird weighed 35 pounds in less than 5 months. For birds to weigh so much in less than five months and for them to manipulate their genome in such a way that their internal organs do not have enough space and are squeezed into the only space left inside the cavity, this is animal abuse because one they are imposing their powers on another species who may or may not have equal power to theirs. This type of action taken by the breeder towards birds is also considered animal abuse according to the definition above because it threatens and damages their well-being. Turkeys subjected to this type of handling are no longer able to walk because their weight is too much to support. They are also no longer able to fly and can no longer participate in normal reproductive behavior. Instead farmers use artificial insemination to populate their farms and raise them for food. This is another type of abuse because, as stated before, they are using their power on another species and are suffering for it. This type of suffering turns into stress and eventually causes the birds to stop eating, resulting in premature death. The pain they suffer both physically and emotionally that causes this type of stress-induced condition is abuse. Peter Singer in his book Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement states “But pain is pain, and the importance of preventing unnecessary pain and suffering is not diminished because being.