Pardon me!

A brief visual history of presidents who spared their turkeys from certain death

Presidential turkeys

Thanksgiving: A day of food, family, and football.

Or fear, if you're a turkey.

Each year, though, one lucky bird beats the odds — and meets the president in the process. But the White House pardoning ceremony is — officially, at least — a pretty recent tradition.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

President George H.W. Bush offered the first formal fowl pardon in 1989. He casually announced the bird had "been granted a presidential pardon as of right now" and then sent the turkey to Frying Pan Park (seriously) in Herndon, Va., which is still the retirement home of choice for the birds.

The gesture caught on, and presidents have since held a pardoning ceremony each year for one bird (while a backup waits in the wings in case of stage fright).

But informally, the tradition may be even older. Abraham Lincoln's son Tad is rumored to have begged his father to allow a turkey meant for Christmas dinner to live. John F. Kennedy, meanwhile, opted out of dressing the White House bird in 1963, saying, "We'll just let this one grow." And Richard Nixon instituted the tradition of sending the birds to a petting zoo after the photo ops were finished.

Most earlier presidents weren't quite so forgiving, though, a fact President Obama mentioned during his 2009 pardon: "Thanks to the intervention of Malia and Sasha — because I was ready to eat this sucker — Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate," he said. "I'm told Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson actually ate their turkeys."

"You can't fault them for that," Obama added. "That's a good-looking bird."

Below, a selection of presidents giving their turkeys a pass — and one image of Ike plotting the best glaze for his bird.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Sarah Eberspacher

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.