Posted on 03/03/2022 3:22:45 PM PST by NohSpinZone
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Postal Service are investigating whether a Sacramento County mail carrier bludgeoned a wild turkey to death with a pole — and whether his actions were justified.
According to KCRA, turkeys freely roam the Northern California neighborhood and typically “mind their own business” — but lately, they’ve been particularly aggressive toward delivery drivers, and their behavior has residents divided.
“I love the turkeys,” neighborhood resident Debbie Eastman told the outlet. “They’re just a little friendly part of the neighborhood.”
However, other residents say that they’re terrorizing the community.
“They are pests and bullies,” another neighbor, Kate, who chose not to share her last name, told KCRA. “They harass the mail people. They chase them. I personally have had to intervene when they jumped on a mail carrier's back.”
According to CDFW, wild turkeys occupy 18% of the state of California. While a handful of strays from a flock don’t generally pose a problem, homeowners who feed them run the risk of making the turkeys lose their fear of humans — sometimes resulting in unwarranted aggression, especially during mating season when they’re known to threaten, charge and attack people.
“You'd be surprised at how aggressive they can be,” Patrick Foy, warden and spokesperson for CDFW, told KCRA. “Especially the big toms.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
We have so many reports of coyotes taking down pets in our neighborhood. I think they need to fear the long gun again. There’s no bag limit on coyotes still in California.
In NYC, you have people who actually love to feed pigeons. They burn me up.
“I’ve wondered about how gamey wild turkey would be. Not a fan of gamey meat. I’d think wild turkey would be as gamey as geese?”
Yes it is gamey but a nice flavor of gamey. I eat it.
ps
A big Tom Turkey can have 2 inch sharp spurs that he can bury into your leg if he feels threatened.
He went postal on a bird 🤪
“He went postal on a bird 🤪”
You win, that’s funny.
Not good advice if you are on a motorcycle. Additionally if you are at high speed they cam come through your windshield like a bird strike on a plane.
I’m sorry, but if you have to bludgeon a bird to death because you think that bird is being a bully, you are a very special kind of pussy.
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LOL, You have obviously never been spurred by a rooster. Trust me, they are more than bullies, they can cause some serious damage. I imagine a turkey would be much worse than a rooster.
Down at our cabin on the Lake of the Ozark we had two wild turkeys taking turns head butting my wife’s black Honda. I keep the sides clean and waxed and they did not like the refections in the side of the car and kept head butting it one morning.
I see people feeding the flying disease carriers and am disgusted at their sheer ignorance.
They need no-limit pigeon hunting in urban areas. Maybe rubber pellets. They're expensive but if the market grew...
12ga Rubber Buckshot 21 Pellet Projectile 5Rds per box
https://www.firequest.com/NL127.html
Unless you have faced a Tom protecting his harem, I don’t think you have full information on how viscous they can be. They also are not “little birdies”, they can weigh 30 pounds or more and have leg spurs in excess of 6 inches.
Smart and edible. The bald eagle is just a fancy vulture...
““For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country…”
Rotisserie is the way to go.
They can disembowl a cat or a dog.
There are local wild turkeys that visit to clean up the bird and squirrel food around the feeders. They will run if you step outside.
The only time they are pests is when they visit in large numbers and take up residence on the patio and crap all over it.
One time the neighbor’s husky came around the house corner when they were feeding and caused a great commotion of whoosing wings. One of the birds flew the wrong way and right into our living room window with a loud thud.
Another time there was a sole Turkey and three crows eating corn I had thrown out for them. The turkey didn’t want the crows there and would chase them. Two crows would run off with the turkey in hot pursuit and the third crow would keep eating. The turkey would notice the third crow and run back to chase him away and the other two crows would return to eat. This bait-and-switch went on for several minutes before the turkey managed to run them all off.
The next door neighbor heard strange noises on her roof this past New Year’s eve and went out to find around 20 Turkeys on her roof. She threw a handful of driveway gravel at them which caused them to flutter down on top of her. Scared the crap out her as she made a run for the house.
Hitting a 35 pound turkey is is not something I’d care to do in the average car.
My car has laser beams so I’ll vaporize them.
LOL!
We deep fry them.
There is a season and tags to hunt wild turkeys here and you can’t hunt them out of season-don’t people in Cali hunt and eat them? They are organic, non GMO and just delicious-I’d think that would appeal to people in Cali...
The people feeding them are probably the same city transplants that feed wild animals everywhere, paying no attention to how dangerous it is to have them lose their fear of humans-so to be fair, these turkey-feeding people need to also put out food for the bears and mountain lions in the nearby woods-after all, they are hungry, too-and very into interacting when you have food-don’t forget to take some photos...
Okay, sorry all of you. I grew up in a city and have never personally dealt with a pi**ed o*f turkey who wants a piece of you. Now I understand..
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