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Barack Obama is joined by daughters Sasha and Malia (right) at the pardoning ceremony. Photo: Reuters

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".

Barack Obama

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.

"Let's face it, if you're a turkey and you're named after a side dish, your chances of escaping Thanksgiving dinner are pretty low," Obama joked. "These guys really beat the odds."

Although presidents have received donated turkeys during Thanksgiving for decades, the turkey pardon itself, believed to have begun under President John F. Kennedy, became an annual event in President George H.W. Bush's White House.

Animal rights group PETA protests against the event, which it says is offensive.

Comedian John Oliver teased the president this year as well, saying if one turkey was pardoned, all turkeys should be.

Obama joked that this pardon would also be controversial, in a nod to the immigration debate.

"I know some will call this amnesty, but don't worry, there's plenty of turkey to go around," he said.

Mac and Cheese will retire to the historic Turkey Hill farm on the estate of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mac and Cheese off White House menu
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