Opinion Today: The turkeys have done nothing wrong

Peter Singer on the ethics of a Thanksgiving tradition.

View in browser|nytimes.com November 22, 2024 By Suein Hwang Business, Economics and Technology Editor, Opinion I still remember when the email popped up in my inbox: Peter Singer, recently described as possibly the world's most influential living philosopher, wanted to submit a piece asking us to reconsider having turkeys on our Thanksgiving menus. When the essay came in, I opened it eagerly. Because this aims to be a family-friendly paper, or at least not to be excessively morbid, I have spared you the details of what that piece said beyond the fact that it detailed a method used to kill entire flocks in some situations. Singer accepted our initial rejection and then turned in a very different piece that pokes fun at the presidential turkey pardon. It is "impossible to take seriously the idea that turkeys need to be pardoned, no matter what they have done, but the annual presidential pardon is doubly absurd," he wrote in his guest essay, "because no one has ever claimed that the turkeys sent to the president have done anything wrong — not even in the sense that your cat does something wrong when she punishes you for going on vacation by using your bed as her litter box." While that first, more graphic version did persuade me to mostly purge turkey from my diet, the essay we've published makes similar points — and you don't have to worry about it giving your children nightmares. Read the guest essay: Lukas Verstraete Guest Essay What a Lame Duck President Could Do for Lame Turkeys President Biden should cancel the Thanksgiving tradition of pardoning a turkey. By Peter Singer Here's what we're focusing on today: Editors' Picks M. 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