“Why don’t you jump yourselves with no parachute. ...”
I had not ever heard of this Arkansas turkey drop, but wildlife officials in states with low wild turkey populations have released wild turkeys from aircraft for decades. . . with good results - with a lot of planning.
The turkeys wouldn’t have to fly - just glide. Whether a domestic turkey could do it routinely . . . I don’t know. The bird might need to go to flight school.
Simple solution. Drop frozen Butterballs on the protesters. Everyone will leave satisfied. No turkeys killed in the drop and a hell of a lot less protesters.
If it is your typical broad breasted grocery store bird, it most definitely can’t fly. They can’t even mate naturally because they are so heavy in front.
I looked it up on youtube - one guy was saying he’s seen turkeys get hit by cars, electrical lines, etc. They dropped four that year (last year?).
They interviewed a Fish & Game Guy, paraphrasing “Nope - no laws are broken as far as Fish & Game is concerned - they aren’t wild - they’re farm animals. Yeah, I don’t know - some folks are for it, and some are against it - you know, everybody’s gots there own ways at lookin’ at things.”
Some lady was doing a bang-up-job at selling her plainly labelled T-shirts: “Turkey Lives Matter”.
There are many turkey breeds some are good flyers. I once spooked some wild turkeys in a field and they flew over a quarter mile into the top of a tree line on the other side.
Wild turkeys can glide just fine. And they are strong enough to fly high into the big pines.
The ones that are worthless flyers would be the high production commercial turkeys that can’t even breed without assistance, the broad-breasts. They put on far too much weight -and too fast- for their airframe to handle. Anyone who drops one of those should be beaten with a split river cane, smeared with corn syrup and tied out spread eagled on a hot gravel bar for the ants.
Antique turkey breeds like the Kentucky bourbon turkey, which is a beautiful but slow growing reddish brown domestic breed with white wings and tail, can fly as well as a wild one when young, and the females can generally fly well at any age. Mine like to fly up onto the house at night... or into the trees, and in the morning can fly down without breaking their legs.
And many people also raise wild Eastern and Rio Grande turkeys which roost in trees, too.
See my post above...they do! Not completely gracefully or for long distances, but they do!