Sanctuary Stories
How Five Turkeys Escaped Becoming Holiday Dinner
Their story is helping more people see these gentle, playful birds as friends, not food
For five scared and sickly turkeys destined to be dinner in Utah, an odd twist of marketing fate would instead have them voluntarily released into the safety of Luvin Arms Sanctuary in Colorado. It was a puzzling publicity move by a major US turkey producer, as the sanctuary’s development and marketing coordinator, Hanna Kircher, describes, but one that ultimately spared many little lives, and is today helping others see turkeys as friends, not food.
Founders of Luvin Arms Sanctuary, Shaleen and Shilpi Shah, first started on their rescue journey saving horses from slaughter auctions in 2015. They quickly saw the many other animals also facing unthinkable ends. So they extended their compassion beyond horses, and began rescuing a variety of animals otherwise destined to be food. Today, the couple and their team care for nearly 100 farmed animals, including those five turkeys, now known as the Tea Girls.
