Tombstones for Turkeys This Thanksgiving? Diners in for a Shock, Courtesy of PETA

For Immediate Release:
November 14, 2025

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

As families sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this year, those with Gen Z and Gen Alpha at the table might be in for a surprise: a small ‘tombstone’ poking out from the turkey carcass on the table, courtesy of peta2—PETA’s youth division. As more young people than ever are choosing to eat vegan, peta2 is answering the call from young people who want to remind family and friends that behind that “corpse of a tortured bird” was a once living, feeling individual who experienced pain and fear before being killed for a fleeting taste.

“Thanksgiving is a grave day for the forty-six million turkeys who are abused and violently killed for this holiday meal every year,” says peta2 Vice President Rachelle Owen. “These turkey tombstones will give families something to chew on this Thanksgiving, and peta2 encourages everyone to let turkeys live in peace by choosing one of the many vegan roasts available in grocery stores nationwide.”   

Turkeys are fascinating individuals who can fly at speeds up to 55mph, and enjoy spending their days building nests, foraging for food, and caring for their young. But those bred and raised for Thanksgiving meals spend their short lives confined to dark, crowded sheds where workers cut off portions of their toes and upper beaks with hot blades without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, turkeys are hung upside down by their weak and crippled legs before their heads are dragged through an electrified “stunning tank,” and many are still conscious and terrified when their throats are slit.

peta2’s free turkey tombstones are also available to order or print online, and come with a vegan holiday guide to help people plan a delicious turkey-free meal. Young people can earn rewards from peta2—including t-shirts, stickers, and cookbooks—when they take action for animals by photographing their mini tombstones on turkey corpses, starting petitions at their schools to end animal dissection, sharing animal rights messages on social media, and more.

peta2—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers young people positive, empowering actions to help animals, as well as a free Guide to Going Vegan. For more information, please visit peta2.com or follow peta2 on TikTok or Instagram.