Winifred, Sarah & Mary

The Sanderson Sisters (despite being a male, Winifred Turkey was welcomed as a sister) were big personalities at the Sanctuary. They spent their days wandering around looking for tasty treats and checking out anything that invoked curiosity…which for a Turkey is almost everything! Everything was their business and nobody could sneeze or cough without being gobbled at, including the neighbours.

They were super cheeky and loved to peck exposed toes, painted fingernails and anything shiny or pretty so watch out for fancy jewellery. When the humans were outside you would always find them close by waddling along beside us and when we weren’t you would often find them hanging with the Sheep falsely believing they would be protected from the Magpie family which has waged bird war.

Unfortunately for most Turkeys born in factory farms as these cuties were, life is horrific. It’s sad to say that despite losing their lives young, They were in fact lucky. I couldn’t tell you the exact odds but there was almost zero chance of them making it out alive and free. It is common practice for Turkeys to be raised in cramped sheds, they suffer through artificial insemination, selective breeding resulting in unnaturally large and painful bodies, debeaking and toe trimming in order to declaw them with no pain relief provided , then sent to their slaughter at 10 weeks old for hens or 17 weeks old for Toms, a ghastly experience in itself.

We sadly lost Winifred suddenly before he had even reached 2 years old. He went to bed one night his usual self and just didn’t wake up the next morning. This is an all too common occurrence for intensively farmed turkeys, selective breeding designed to make sure they grow as fast and as big as possible means their internal organs just can’t cope. Sarah and Mary also lost their lives over the following months. They had such a big presence, their loss was felt intensely. We have so many fond and hysterically funny memories of these beautiful big dinosaurs. What a pleasure to have known them.