On Monday, President Joe Biden pardoned two doomed-to-be-dinner turkeys at the White House in the long-standing traditional National Thanksgiving Turkey event in his last time as commander-in-chief.

President Joe Biden has kicked off his final holiday season at the White House, issuing the traditional reprieve to two turkeys who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in Minnesota.

Turkey pardons can be traced back to President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Historians claim he spared a turkey's life after his son, Tad, befriended it. But yearly pardoning became an "official" tradition under George H W Bush, when the former president pardoned a turkey in 1989 as animal-rights activists protested nearby.