President Barack Obama "pardoned" a turkey on Wednesday afternoon in this year's exercising of a presidential tradition. "The office of the presidency -- the most powerful position in the world -- brings with it many awesome and solemn responsibilities," Obama said during the brief ceremony at the White House, adding, "This is not one of them." In noting that the turkey was one of 80 such birds who had competed for the pardon, the president quipped that it was "quite literally the Hunger Games." But not everyone finds the light-hearted ceremony so funny: on Tuesday, British indie music star Morrissey published a missive on his fan site entitled "Thankskilling" which takes aim at Obama for participating in the tradition.
"Please ignore the abysmal example set by President Obama who, in the name of Thanksgiving, supports torture as 45 million birds are horrifically abused; dragged through electrified stun baths, and then have their throats slit," Morrissey wrote. "And President Obama laughs. Haha, so funny!" The letter continues, "As Ingrid Newkirk from PETA points out, turkey 'meat' is one of "our nation's top killers", causing heart-attacks and strokes in humans due to saturated animal fats and cholesterol. And President Obama laughs."
It concludes, "Further, the meat industry is responsible for 51 percent of human-caused greenhouse-gas emission, therefore the embarrassingly stupid White House 'turkey pardon' is open support for a viciously cruel and environmentally irresponsible industry. And President Obama laughs." Spin notes that Morrissey has long been an outspoken animal-rights advocate -- back in 1985, the Smiths released an album and song entitled "Meat Is Murder", and more recently he has canceled a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after learning that he would be appearing alongside the cast of the A&E duck-hunting reality show "Duck Dynasty".
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