Jackie and Christina are big, pretty turkeys, who now live at a spacious, safe refuge in upstate New York, after being rescued from a factory farm. These feathery ladies enjoy eating cooked squash and cranberries, instead of being served up next to them.
And you can help keep these guys fed another year by participating in Farm Sanctuary's annual Adopt a Turkey Program -- which encourages participants to help these turkeys have good long existences, in honor of the more than 45 million turkeys who'll be eaten this Thanksgiving.
"Turkeys are amazing, and this is the greatest time of year to celebrate their lives," Susie Coston, Farm Sanctuary's national shelter director, told The Huffington Post.
For $30, participants can pick one of five turkeys to sponsor -- Jackie, Christina and three others.
You will get an adoption certificate -- may we suggest that be changed to certificluck?-- with the bird's name, history, food preferences and other information to give you a special connection with your adoptee. You will, of course, also get a photograph.
Farm Sanctuary is asking folks to donate $50 for the honorary adoption of a beloved bird who died this year.
Turpentine was raised to be a Thanksgiving meal. But he was so friendly that a neighbor grew attached to him.
The two "became friends, and every day when she called out Turpentine’s name, he would gobble back to her," Coston wrote, after Turpentine died in January.
That besotted neighbor convinced Turpentine's owner to give him to her. She, in turn, gave him to Farm Sanctuary, where he made buddies of all species, hopped into frame every time he saw a camera -- and helped prove that turkeys are special creatures, with individual preferences and personalities.
Turpentine is no different from any of the other turkeys who don't get spared, except "he had the chance to show people who he was. Turpentine insisted on being known," Coston wrote.
She tells HuffPost that, indeed, the Adopt a Turkey Program -- which has been around for nearly 30 years now -- is intended to spread this very idea.
"It’s a very positive way to engage dialogue. For them to share that turkeys are friends, not food," she said.
Perhaps, Turpentine, Jackie, Christina and the others' stories will move you. And then, Coston hopes, in addition to adopting them, you'll spare their friends.
Get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share!
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