Turkey Boy was brought to a noisy Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, strip joint to be the butt of jokes at a Thanksgiving party. Soon, laughing, rowdy customers were having a great time tormenting the young turkey by grinding out their cigarettes on him and dousing him with beer. A photographer begged the proprietor to give her the turkey so she could get him out of there. The man refused, so she bought the tortured, trembling bird for 50 dollars.

Bea Martin and Andrea Smith of Rascal’s Wildlife Care Network collected Turkey Boy and cared for him until they found him a real home at Lyla and Bob Galasso’s Little Bit of Heaven sanctuary in Loxahatchee, Florida. He was scared to death of people, and it took two years of tender loving care before he came to trust humans. His friends are geese, peacocks, mallards, wood ducks, and other animals who have been neglected or abused and for one reason or another cannot be released back into the wild. Treated with kindness and respect, they all get along and are living out their lives on five acres of tropical paradise with a lake and lots of shady palm trees.

The geese are Turkey Boy’s special friends, and he tries his best to fit in with them. Every afternoon, the geese stretch their wings and then run down to the lake with Turkey Boy right in the middle. The first time they did this, Turkey Boy ran right into the water with them and made a startling discovery—he couldn’t swim! He scrambled back onto the bank and ever since has stopped right at the edge of the lake to watch and wait while his buddies swim.

Turkey Boy has grown into a big gorgeous black bird with a bright red head. He is affectionate with one and all and has become the neighborhood celebrity. When neighbors have a party, they bring their guests to the sanctuary fence and “gobble” to Turkey Boy, who hurries over, puffs out his chest and sociably gobbles back to them.

Best of all, Turkey Boy now has his own very special companion—Turkey Girl arrived at the sanctuary recently, and the two are inseparable.

Thousands of turkeys just like Turkey Boy and Turkey Girl never know a moment of happiness in their entire lives. On today’s factory farms, producers cram tens of thousands of turkeys into each warehouse. They debeak and declaw the young birds without anesthesia and feed them synthetic hormones that soon make their bodies grow too big and heavy for their legs. Disease, smothering, and heart attacks are common. Because the turkeys are forced to live in their own excrement and filth, the producers routinely feed them antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to go to slaughter.

Even so, every year millions of turkeys die in the warehouses. Millions more die of heat exhaustion, freezing, or accidents during transport to slaughterhouses.

Please refuse to support this cruelty by choosing one of the delicious healthy alternatives to these poor birds’ flesh. Look in supermarkets or health food stores and on the Web for Tofurkys, Unturkeys, Tofu Turkey roasts, Cheatin’ Roasted Turkey slices, and the other turkey alternatives now widely available. For more information on vegetarian holiday meals, call PETA toll-free at 888-VEG-FOOD. In the U.K., call 020 8870 3966.