Move over, John Lewis! PETA’s first-ever Christmas advert will open your heart in a way no holiday advert ever has. Framed from the point of view of a turkey – an intelligent and social bird – this eye-opening spot is sure to make you question the status quo. The ad will be shown on cinema screens across the UK this festive season, but you can catch it here first:
Meet Toby the Turkey
The touching tale – made in collaboration with creative agency Dream Farm – follows young Toby the turkey’s narrow escape from an abattoir-bound lorry.
The advert shows Toby seated – not served – at the Christmas table, a cherished member of his new family.
Toby is lucky, unlike the 9 to 11 million turkeys slaughtered for Christmas dinners in the UK every year. Turkeys like Toby’s loving mother will never know what it’s like to enjoy fresh air, sunshine, a satisfying meal, or comfort.
Spread Kindness and Goodwill to ALL This Festive Season!
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Eating Turkeys for Christmas Dinner Is an Out-of-Touch Tradition
While humanity touts peace and compassion in the spirit of Christmas, misguided holiday customs spell torment and a brutal death for turkeys and other animals.
Killing animals is at odds with the festive message of love, hope, and joy. Peace starts on your plate. The easy choice to skip eating animals spares them unfathomable suffering, and you can still have all the classic Christmas foods you love – just without the cruelty.
Gentle, gracious, and gregarious birds just like Toby are often shackled and hung by their feet before being dragged through electrified water at the abattoir. Some are still conscious when a worker slits their throat. Like any caring mother, Toby’s couldn’t bear the thought of her son’s life ending this way. Although it meant she’d never see him again, she made the gut-wrenching choice to push him out of the lorry, knowing that almost any other fate would be better than the one in store for him.
No mother should be torn from her child and slaughtered – especially in the name of Christmas.
Practise What You Preach!
In nature, turkeys are protective parents and spirited explorers who can live for up to 10 years, but those killed for food are normally slaughtered between 12 and 26 weeks of age, meaning your centrepiece was likely still very young. Human children have a natural empathy for animals and would be horrified and traumatised to learn what happens to them before they end up on our plates. Don’t feed babies to your babies. Let’s start a new tradition of peace and compassion this festive season and beyond!
Have a Merry Vegan Christmas
What does Christmas mean to you? Sharing compassion is as simple as enjoying a delicious vegan feast, and our guides to festive vegan meals will walk you through it:
Animals want to be with their families, too. Live and let live by leaving birds and other animals off your plate.
