ORLAND - Devoted vegetarians Dino and Barbara Collaro drove two hours to California's farm belt to attend a Thanksgiving feast where no one dared ridicule them for refusing to eat turkey.

The honored dinner guests were turkeys -- real ones -- and the menu catered to the birds' favorite tastes rather than people's taste for the birds.

The Collaros and 250 other people each paid $30 Saturday to feed pumpkin pie, squash and cranberries to Blossom, Lala, Tinkerbell and other rescued turkeys at the Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit retirement home for farm animals.

The group's Celebration of the Turkeys turns the table on the American holiday tradition that can find vegetarians squirming under the raised eyebrows and stares of their meat-eating friends and family members.

"You can feel like an outcast," said Barbara Collaro, a Martinez resident. "This is fun. I have wanted to do this for years."

The Collaros still plan to attend an extended-family dinner on Thanksgiving with meat eaters.

On Saturday, however, vegetarians ruled the roost at the sanctuary for farm animals, including sheep, cattle, ducks, chickens and donkeys.

Before eating a vegetarian meal featuring mashed potatoes, broccoli slaw and soy-based Tofurkey, the people served platters of vegetarian fare to 26 farm turkeys.

Eleven of those turkeys were lucky to be there.

They were among 40 that survived a cargo plane trip from Detroit to San Francisco in August while en route to a commercial farm to become breeding stock.

--
full story:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/16073776.htm