Why presidents started pardoning turkeys

The annual turkey delivery dates back more than a century to 1873, the year a Rhode Island man named Horace Vose began sending birds to the president every year. But the tradition of pardoning the turkeys and sending them off to live out their few remaining days in peace is a comparatively new phenomenon.

President Obama continued that tradition Wednesday, granting Cheese an official reprieve. His alternate, Mac, was also spared from the dinner table and the pair has been dispatched to Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia, for their retirement.

The National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board took over the official role of providing the presidential turkey in 1946, according to the History Channel, when they presented President Harry Truman with a 42-pound turkey. Though he was photographed receiving the bird, he did not start the pardoning tradition - a point the Truman Library clarified after the myth persisted.

Another bit of White House turkey lore says that President Abraham Lincoln pardoned a turkey when his son, Tad, begged him to do so.

To the best of our knowledge, though, the White House says it was President John F. Kennedy who first decided not to make a meal of his annual gift from the National Turkey Federation. When he was presented with the 1963 turkey - which bore a sign around its neck reading, "Good eating, Mr. President!" - Kennedy said, "We'll just let this one grow" and sent it back to the farm. In a twist of fate, the turkey was presented on November 19, just three days before he was assassinated.

The formal pardoning began with President George H.W. Bush in 1989. The bird was dispatched to live at Frying Pan Park in Herndon, Virginia, one of several destinations for pardoned turkeys. Between 2005 and 2009, they would go from their pardoning ceremony to Disneyland and Walt Disney World to serve as the grand marshals in the parks' annual Thanksgiving parades. And for the past three years, the pardoned turkeys traveled to Mount Vernon, President George W. Washington's estate in Virginia, to be on display during Christmas.

The turkeys that make it to the White House each year have to distinguish themselves in both their charisma and their ability to handle a stimulating environment, like a room full of photographers at a formal White House event.

"Two of them came out of the group and kind of started strutting at me and they were almost like, 'hey we're here lets go,' and they were two of the prettiest ones in here," Cole Cooper, who raised the birds at Cooper Farms in Ohio, told CBS News' Chip Reid. Cooper trained them for the high-pressure environment in advance, in part by letting his one-year-old son interact with them.

CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reported a few years ago that the turkey pardoning has traditionally afforded presidents a chance to showcase their funnier sides - or at least their attempts at humor.

In 1993, at his first pardoning ceremony, President Bill Clinton said the pardon was easy for him "because I've been around turkeys all my life." Upon realizing the double meaning of his statement, Mr. Clinton was quick to add: "I didn't mean it like that."

In 1990, the senior Mr. Bush said he planned to "spare" the turkey, but not for the reasons the audience thought.

"He will not be subjected to questions from the Washington press corps after this ceremony," he said.

Nowadays, the turkeys retire to Morven Park's Turkey Hill, the historic turkey farm located at the home of former Virginia Governor Westmorland Davis in Leesburg, Virginia.

Despite the reprieve from the Thanksgiving table, many turkeys don't live long past their pardon because the excess weight they carry to make them good eating birds puts an immense strain on their bodies. One of the 2013 turkeys, Popcorn, died in July, the Washington Post reports. But Caramel is still gobbling about, in part because he's down from his Thanksgiving 2013 weight of about 40 pounds to a more manageable 30 to 35 pounds.

"That was intentional," Keith McMillan, the chief caretaker for the turkeys at Morven Park, told Bloomberg News. "He couldn't hardly go up this ramp when he got here."

McMillan said Caramel eats a local flock feed from Purina for ducks, chicken and turkeys. "They have a good life," he said.

Plus, Caramel appears to have acquired a friend in Franklin, a dark-feathered turkey who follows him around every day.