FOX News Contributor Mike Gallagher Laughs At Inhumane Treatment Of Turkeys
Reported by Ellen - November 25, 2005
Wednesday night's Hannity & Colmes (11/23/05) featured a pre-Thanksgiving discussion with a member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) about the cruelty to turkeys at factory farms. FOX News Contributor Mike Gallagher showed just what kind of compassionate conservative he is by making jokes about the harsh treatment, sneering at initiatives to make that treatment more humane and ridiculing those who care.
Alan Colmes asked Gallagher if we're going to kill turkeys, shouldn't it be done in a more humane way? Colmes said that turkeys' throats are slit while they're alive, they get hung upside down and are scalded.
Gallagher responded derisively. "Alan, they're turkeys! I mean we're not talking about people here! ...This isn't Rwanda, these are turkeys."
Colmes pressed the issue by asking again if the slaughter shouldn't be more humane.
"Who cares? They're turkeys!"
"Would you put down a dog or a cat in a non-humane way?"
Gallagher said "That's a dog or a cat. We don't eat dogs or cats. We eat turkeys."
Colmes brought up an incident when Gallagher had a cow killed on his radio show and he couldn't watch. Gallagher glibly answered, "I want to have a good steak. I just don't want to chase it around the stockyards, Alan."
Later, Bruce Friedrich, from PETA, told Colmes, "The animals on the factory farms are treated abysmally."
Gallagher could be heard sighing with disgust and laughing at Friedrich while he spoke.
"The slaughter is something they could easily fix," Friedrich continued. He said that PETA is submitting shareholder resolutions to Hormel, "the number one turkey slaughterer," as well as Tyson and other companies.
Gallagher said, sarcastically, "There's got to be a serious issue, Bruce, you guys will get excited about."
Later, Colmes asked Gallagher about other issues PETA stands for such as recalling contaminated meat. "Wouldn't you be healthier with stricter contamination laws?"
Gallagher scoffed at the possible threat to public health. "Yeah, that's just what we need, more laws to worry about how mean we are to the turkeys... Real Americans eat turkey.""
At the end of the segment, Friedrich said that 96% of Americans are opposed to cruelty to animals.
