This prayer from a little girl is raising a lot of eyebrows.
The prayer is featured in a "provocative" TV commercial by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's biggest animal rights group.
The ad shows the girl saying grace before her family's Thanksgiving dinner. It is set for airing in time for the Canadian Thanksgiving Day on Monday, Oct. 10.
The girl in the ad gives Canadians some "food for thought" with a shocking prayer, which she turned into a graphic description of the ways in which turkeys suffer in the meat industry.
The ad begins with the girl saying, "Dear God, thank you for the turkey we're about to eat and for the turkey farms, where they pack them into dark, tiny little sheds for their whole lives."
The scene shows people at the dinner table raising their eyebrows and gasping at the words being uttered by the girl.
She continues: "And special thanks for all the chemicals and dirt and poop that's in the turkey we're about to eat."
The ad concludes with the message: "This Thanksgiving, be thankful you're not a turkey. Go vegan."
On its website, PETA posted an article urging families "to make their holiday table a place of compassion" by not serving the traditional turkey dish during their Thanksgiving dinner and opt for vegan food instead.
PETA notes that last year, Canadians ate 8.4 million turkeys—with 2.9 million purchased for Thanksgiving alone.
It graphically describes how the turkeys make it to the dinner table. "Birds are hung up by the feet from metal shackles, and their heads are dragged through an electrified bath to stun them, but it doesn't always work: Often, they're still conscious when their throats are slit and they're dumped into scalding-hot water for feather removal," the group says.
Critics say PETA's campaigns do more harm than good and are considered offensive to the general public.
Recalling at least two of PETA's controversial moves, the Santa Barbara Independent noted that the group once launched a "Drink Beer, Not Milk" campaign, which offended the Mothers Against Drunk Driving group among others. PETA's "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, which made a detailed comparison between human genocide and the mistreatment of farm animals, was also roundly condemned by hundreds of groups including the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Anti-Defamation League.
However, Ingrid Newkirk, the organisation's founder, says "extremism and outrage provide fuel for PETA," adding that the group would be worthless if they were just polite and did not make any waves.
To its credit, PETA has succeeded in convincing major fast-food chains, including McDonald's, to adopt policies designed to improve the treatment of animals whose meat they get from suppliers following its campaign that included distribution of "Unhappy Meals" with wounded and bloody farm animal toys, according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
Top designers also stopped selling fur after PETA's "Fur Is Dead" campaign, where they showed that behind every fur coat is a living animal.
The group also persuaded General Motors Corp. to stop using animals in crash tests and pressured more than 500 other cosmetic companies to stop animal testing.
