Talk:National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation

Who was the first President to ACTUALLY pardon a Turkey?
The Summary says H.W.Bush, but the source linked for that claim says Truman. Then the list of pardoned turkeys starts at Reagan...

Do we need to go back year by year through newspapers or is there a better source somewhere? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:4000:7B70:B9C8:44F5:EC13:2C9 (talk) 03:38, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
Truman's pardoning of the turkey is an urban legend. There is no historical evidence which can verify this claim. While I don't want to ruin someone's cherished holiday meme, claims made in Wikipedia must be verifiable. --Hedgeman (talk) 02:37, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Seriously?
"[T]he turkey has been taken to a farm where its friends are assured that it will live..." Turkeys have friends? 68.46.43.198 (talk) 05:44, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point. Steven Walling (talk) 22:51, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Names
I say we should have a list of the turkeys that were pardoned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.163.63.16 (talk) 19:19, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Americans are idiots?
I think this article should be merged with Cheese Whiz and the 2nd Amendment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.174.169.54 (talk) 05:53, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I disagree. This is a great article. Viriditas (talk) 00:12, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Recommend that comment be deleted and replaced with only proper sayings such as "Nuke Russia", "Bomb Europe", "Rape Canadian Bitches" and "Kick All Australians Asses". 69.143.125.47 (talk) 01:31, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Is there any danger?

 * 2002: George W. Bush pardoned the first-ever female turkey in the ceremony, Katie, a 30-pound bird bred by Ron Prestage

That's a big bird. Is there any danger to the participants? Viriditas (talk) 00:12, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Subsequent dinner
So... do the president & family/guests eat a *different* turkey that night? Or do they eat vegetarian for dinner? (Seems kind of pointless to pardon one turkey but slaughter another...) SnowFire (talk) 17:09, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

What the hell is turkey pardoning?
As a non American, I had never heard of this and came to wikipedia to read what exactly "pardoning a turkey" means. But this article is written as if everyone already knew -- it talks about the first president to pardon a turkey, the selection process, gives a list of turkeys that have been pardoned, etc. Pardoning? As in, being forgiven for a crime? What? I seriously feel that an encyclopaedia article on a thing needs to, as a bare minimum, explain what that thing is. 2A00:23C0:C138:5F00:E401:ACD8:CF23:D47B (talk) 15:24, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
 * The article is abount a specific American cultural event, like that thing they do with a gopher in spring somewhere, and will be of little interest to anybody else. It seems to have started as PR for the poultry industry and has evolved into an annual media event, connived at by presidents to generate a bit of publicity. I agree it seems bizarre and deranged to outsiders (I'm British). --Ef80 (talk) 22:30, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

"The ceremony has been cited as an example of carnism by animal activists and vegans."
Why is this so relevant as to be included in the expository paragraph?

We don't start the article "hamburger" by saying "Hindus consider hamburgers to be an affront to the god Kamadhenu." And I'm being extremely generous with that comparison.

If you must shoehorn vegan activists' opinion into the article, make a new section called "controversy" or something. (Although there is literally no controversy surrounding this completely innocent tradition.)