Every year as Americans gather around a table of mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and turkey, two fortunate birds are saved from the serving plate and sent to the White House, where they are granted a stay of execution.

The first president to be presented with a turkey at a Thanksgiving ceremony at the White House was Harry S Truman. President Dwight D Eisenhower followed in his footsteps and received a turkey in the White House Rose Garden, but President Kennedy was the first to send a turkey to a farm. He returned the turkey given to him in 1963. The tradition of giving a turkey a formal pardon emerged in 1989 during President George H W Bush’s first Thanksgiving in the White House.



But what exactly happens to the turkeys after that grand ceremony takes place?



Over the years they’ve been sent to a variety of farms to live out their days in peace. This year, they’re headed to Turkey Hill Farm in Morven Park in Virginia, the same farm they were sent to in 2013 and 2014. Prior to that, between 2010 and 2012, the turkeys spent their final days at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. But that tradition was ended because it was not historically accurate, as Washington did not farm turkeys.

From 2005 to 2009, the birds were sent to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland Resort in California, or the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. And for many years before that, they resided in Fairfax County, Virginia at the aptly named Frying Pan Park.

But this year’s turkeys, Tom One and Tom Two, might be in for a surprise as their finals days could be numbered.

According to Dean Norton, the director at Mount Vernon in charge of livestock, the turkeys are raised for consumption so they’re overweight and not expected to live much longer on their own.

“The bird is bred for the table, not for longevity,” Norton told CNN. “Some of [the pardoned turkeys] have been pretty short lived.”

Popcorn, one of the turkeys pardoned in 2013, died the summer after his short stay at the White House from “something heat-related”, Teresa Davenport, spokesperson for Morven Park told the Huffington Post. Cobbler and Gobbler, who avoided the dinner table in 2012, both died within a year of being pardoned. Three of the four turkeys pardoned in 2010 and 2011 died less than five months after leaving the White House, and the final turkey from 2011 lived for only 16 months following the ceremony, according to CNN.

“The birds are fed in such a way to increase their weight,” Norton told CNN. “[Americans] want a nice big breasted turkey and so they are fed high protein diet and they get quite large. The organs, though, that are in this bird are meant for a smaller bird. They just can’t handle the extra weight, so they end up living not as long [as wild turkeys].”