A History of the Presidential Turkey Pardon
In addition to the multitude of family traditions, Thanksgiving comes with quite a few public trappings; the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, canned food drives, the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special, and of course, the Turkey Pardon.
For years, it has fallen on the President of the United States to "pardon" a specially selected turkey, ensuring it can live out a long and happy life far from the family table. But how did this slightly kitschy tradition get started? That's a more complicated question than you might think.
The tradition can be traced all the way back to Abraham Lincoln.
In 1863 "a live turkey had been brought home for the Christmas dinner, but [Lincoln’s son Tad] interceded in behalf of its life," a White House reporter noted in an 1865 dispatch recorded by the White House Historical Association. Tad's "plea was admitted and the turkey’s life spared."
Though the story takes place around a Christmas feast rather than a harvest celebration, considering that Lincoln was the president to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3, 1863, it make a certain kind of sense for him to be the father of this particular turkey day tradition as well.
In the 1920s, turkeys from across the country were sent to the White House.
The chamber of commerce of Cuero, Texas, sent this 38-pound bird to Washington in a coop modeled after the White House in 1920.
JFK let his turkey live, but didn't technically "pardon" it.
100 years after Lincoln let the first presidential turkey have a reprieve, in the early fall of 1963, John F. Kennedy received his would-be Thanksgiving dinner from the National Turkey Federation (the foundation has been presenting live turkeys for the presidential Thanksgiving since 1947), but then promptly let it return to the farm that it came from. “We’ll just let this one grow,” he reportedly said.
Ronald Reagan was the first president to officially send turkeys off to live at a farm.
After 1981 it became the norm for presidents to send the presentation turkey to a farm, the White House Historical Association reports. Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, was the first president to officially grant the turkeys a pardon: "Let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone's dinner table, not this guy," Bush said in 1989. "He's granted a presidential pardon as of right now—and allow him to live out his days on a children's farm not far from here."
They're raised for the spotlight
The birds pardoned by presidents are specially chosen from a flock raised specifically for that purpose by the National Turkey Federation.
"The flock is prepared for potential stardom at the White House from an early age, with the birds becoming acclimated to the sounds of a crowd, bright camera lights, and having to stand comfortably on a table during the presentation," according to a press release. "The turkeys will also prepare for their visit by interacting with children and families on stops around the Huron community."
They live it up in Washington, D.C. before their big day
Since 2004, the birds have gotten to stay at the swanky Willard InterContinental Hotel. The National Turkey Federation covers the cost of their luxury hotel room.
What happens to them after the pardoning?
Where the turkeys go to live out their post-pardon lives varies from year to year. In 2016 and 2017, the turkeys wen to Virginia Tech’s "Gobblers Rest" exhibit, where students and veterinarians care for the turkeys, and the public can visit them. The turkeys pardoned by Obama in 2013, '14, and '15, went to Morven Park, the historic estate of former Virginia Gov. Westmoreland Davis in Leesburg. Some earlier turkeys have gone to other farms as well as the occasional zoo.
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