I see truckloads of turkeys in open cages stacked up behind 18 wheelers being driven to Tyson almost weekly. Year round, doesn’t matter if it’s 95° or way below freezing. Can’t be pleasant. But I don’t know how much self awareness is left in today’s commercial breeds, compared to a wild bird. They’re more like big meaty goldfish I’d imagine.
That's quite true, and actually reinforces my opinion that this drop is just mean and stupid. Lack of self awareness in one's victim does not reduce one's culpability.
I have a flock of honest-to-god wild turkeys on my property (upstate NY) and they are smart, wily critters who can fly just fine -- I've seen them get maybe 50-75 feet off the ground and land in a tree. Presumably they get down from the trees just fine too, I haven't seen any wild turkey skeletons in my trees.
But even they probably would blow their feathers out, or break a wing and drop like a rock, if thrown out of an airplane (which isn't standing still so there's a significant starting velocity into the wind) at 500 feet. I imagine the terminal velocity of such a critter would be enough to smash it to smithereens upon impact.
Yeah, commercial turkeys are pretty stupid. I've read that they have to be brought in out of the rain, because otherwise they'll stand there with their mouths open, swallowing water until they literally drown. Might be true.