Mac, Cheese off Thanksgiving menu: Obama pardons birds in annual ritual

Cheese, a 22kg, 90cm-tall turkey with a gobble said to sound like a country twang, received a US presidential pardon at the White House this week saving him from a "terrible and delicious fate".

President Barack Obama spared the bird as part of the annual presidential turkey pardon, a longtime Washington ritual that serves as a symbolic opener of the Thanksgiving holiday.

It was, Obama joked, one of his most high-profile actions in a month that has seen high political drama, including the president's unilateral overhaul of the immigration system which is opposed by Republicans.

"I'm here to announce what I'm sure will be the most talked about executive action this month," he said.

The public chose Cheese by popular vote as the official National Thanksgiving Turkey, although his partner Mac also travelled to Washington and will receive a pardon.

The two 20-week-old turkeys were provided by father and son turkey farmers from Ohio and named from suggestions by schoolchildren.