Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty
The 40 lb., Southern Indiana natives — now named Peanut Butter and Jelly — arrived in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, where they met fans before retreating to their room at the city’s swank Willard InterContinental Hotel. Hotel staff rolled out a red carpet for the pair, who spent the day on Zoom calls ahead of a meal of corn and soybeans and a rest on the property’s plush beds.
According toTime,turkeys have been living it up at the five-star D.C. property since 2014. Handlers spend an hour prepping the room ahead of the guest of honors' arrival, covering baseboards with brown paper to protect from pecks and adding pine shavings to the floor to make cleaning messes a breeze. The National Turkey Federation — the organization that provides the animals to the White House each year — foots the bill.
Though two turkeys come to Washington every year, only one gets the official pardon from the president, while the other serves as an alternate. However, neither will see a dinner table.
Drew Angerer/Getty
Instead, after Friday’s ceremony, Peanut Butter and Jelly will head back to Indiana, where they will live out their livesat Purdue Universityunder the care of faculty and students in the Department of Animal Sciences.
RELATED PHOTOS:See Past U.S. Presidents with the Turkeys They’ve ‘Pardoned’
Earlier this fall, a handful of celebritiesteamed with Farm Sanctuary to ask President Bidento instead send the turkeys to one of Farm Sanctuary’s facilities after the pardon.
The history of the turkey pardon dates back to 1863 and President Abraham Lincoln, according toWhite House history, though photos didn’t happen until 1960, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower greeted a bird at the White House. In the years since,all presidents have participatedin the annual tradition.
source: people.com
