Sanctuary Stories
The Special Turkey Saved From Being Christmas Dinner
Delilah is a special girl, a beautiful living reminder that turkeys are people too
Driving past the slaughterhouse in Moroni, Utah, where countless turkeys are killed each year, Zoe Rosenberg, 18-year-old founder of Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary in California, says all you can see surrounding it are farms. “When you’re standing at the slaughterhouse, you can just look over and see the hills, sheds everywhere, for miles and mile and miles; hundreds of thousands of turkeys.” It’s from these farms, and at this slaughterhouse, where Rosenberg, along with activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), have been rescuing turkeys for the past three years, in cooperation with the new slaughterhouse owner. Since then, they have saved and re-homed nearly 150 birds, otherwise destined to be holiday dinner.
But it is one particular little turkey, now named Delilah, who Rosenberg says really demonstrates how a change in care can change an animal. “She’s really a special girl.”
‘A lot of them we’ll pull out of the trailer and they’ll be very scared and stressed out, and after a couple of minutes they calm down, their eyes…
