WASHINGTON, November 27 (Sputnik) – US President Barack Obama has pardoned two turkeys as part of a long-standing
holiday tradition, the White House website says.
“Today I am taking an action fully within my legal authority to spare the lives of two turkeys Mac and Cheese from a terrible and delicious fate,” President Obama said Wednesday, joking about his recent executive action on immigration.
The pardoned turkeys, named after the famous US macaroni and cheese side dish, most commonly referred to as "mac and cheese", will be taken to Leesburg, Virginia, to live at the estate of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis.
Two other turkeys that were not pardoned by Obama will go to a Washington DC food pantry.
The American tradition of sending turkeys to US presidents for the Thanksgiving holidays goes back to the 19th century. The first US President to grant the Thanksgiving turkey a presidential pardon was US President George H.W. Bush, who in 1989 spared the turkey from being slaughtered.
