Shai and Or were found on the side of the road after falling from a truck transporting them to a fattening farm, to be sold as processed sandwich meat at a later date.
A third turkey, Orly, recently arrived to the farm after falling from a truck on the way to slaughter. Orly was named for Orly Vilnai, a popular Israeli television journalist.
The three turkeys often run around FFS singing their sweet songs. They love to enter the FFS offices and jump on our laps and desks, demanding their daily dose of affection and attention. They are intensely curious and love music—any genre will do!
Although they are now well fed and in perfect health, they constantly feel the pain of hunger due to genetic modification making it easier to force feed them for quick fattening and higher profits. Being responsible for both their health and comfort, we monitor their food intake so they won’t eat too much and end up collapsing due to their unnatural weight.
If you come to visit, you will notice that their beaks are cut off; a painful procedure done to turkeys raised for meat. Baby chicks are hung upside down in a mechanical carousel, where a laser severs their beaks. Besides the infections and unbearable pain, this cruel practice prevents some turkeys from finding food as the beak is filled with sensitive nerves which are also used to sense their surroundings. Turkeys explore the world through their beaks, much like we do with our hands.
We hope you will come visit Shai, Or and Orly and enjoy getting to know these very special creatures, each with their own distinctive personalities.
