Thanksgiving is a treasured holiday that brings Americans together, at least in spirit, to celebrate the blessings in our lives. As cherished as the holiday is, there is one aspect of it that needs to change. Every year, turkey producers breed big birds, and millions of people gobble them up as if they were as insentient as the turkey balloons we see at Thanksgiving Day parades.

But this year, many people aren’t hosting large holiday gatherings because of the pandemic. Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the country, predicts that 43% of shoppers will be celebrating Thanksgiving with only those in their immediate households.

Rather than dishing out a lot of money for a “butterball”—and then being stuck eating turkey flesh until Christmas—caring, health-conscious individuals can stuff themselves with tasty vegan versions of traditional holiday favorites and spare animals enormous suffering at the same time.

Turkeys are gentle, inquisitive birds who like having their feathers stroked and gobbling along to music. They enjoy human companionship, and rescued turkeys in sanctuaries have been known to make the rounds in search of treats and affection.

Turkeys can naturally live up to 10 years, but those raised for food are typically killed when they’re only between 12 and 26 weeks old. Before they’re slaughtered, they spend several months packed tightly together in dark, disease-ridden sheds. Factory workers cut off part of their sensitive upper beak with a hot blade—using no pain killers—to keep them from pecking each other out of stress and deprivation.

Males’ snoods (that fleshy appendage that hangs beneath their beak) are chopped off, too, which causes them intense, unrelenting pain. Many farm workers genetically manipulate turkeys and feed them antibiotics in order to keep them alive in such stressful and filthy conditions, at least long enough for them to reach slaughter weight. The antibiotics also stimulate unnatural growth, so turkeys typically become so big that they can barely walk, let alone mate. That’s why turkeys are bred through artificial insemination.

At the slaughterhouse, turkeys are shackled, hung upside down and, often, scalded to death in the tanks of water used for feather removal.

Why not make the culinary focal point of Thanksgiving something that symbolizes love and kindness, rather than suffering and death?

Celebrate ThanksVegan by making a festive vegan meal or serving a ready-made vegan feast, such as Gardein’s great-tasting holiday roast stuffed with cranberry, kale and wild rice.

Analysts estimate that the “plant meat market” will reach $27 billion by 2025. Turkey farmers would be wise to join the ever-growing vegan meat industry and help provide humane meals for everyone who knows that there’s no need to take another animal’s life in order to give thanks for the blessings in their own.