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A Festival of Cruelty
Townhall.com ^ | October 24, 2017 | Paul Greenberg

Posted on 10/24/2017 1:58:50 PM PDT by Kaslin

The phantom pilot who's tossed live turkeys from his airplane for 15 years now over the annual Turkey Trot Festival at Yellville, Ark., is a phantom no more. Now that he's been succeeded by a different pilot flying a different aircraft, he's proudly revealed his identity. He turns out to be Dana Woods, pharmacist and alderman from Mountain View.

"My plane is on the ground," Alderman Woods texted during the festival, playing the hero of this sad story rather than the villain he is. Naturally enough, he's offered a lame excuse for his (mis)behavior, mainly that his critics care more for birds than they do for people. He claims all these "bird-loving" types who've spoken up for the poor turkeys had nothing to say when a 4-year-old child was killed in the vicinity last November. His is an old and unconvincing rhetorical ploy that ought to fool no one.

Meanwhile, the law in those parts has turned a blind eye to this annual rite of fall. Even though, according to Arkansas Code 5-62-103, cruelty to animals is a misdemeanor that comes with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine not to exceed $1,000. And a repeat offender becomes a felon eligible for psychiatric evaluation. If what's been going on in Yellville isn't cruelty to animals, it's certainly not kindness.

Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton, a professor of poultry science at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, has a saner attitude toward these goings-on. She's described the turkey drop as a "horrific act of abuse." What we have here, besides a failure to empathize with a fellow creature, is a simple failure to connect the dots. Someone who grows up being taught to laugh at the pain and suffering inflicted on an animal may soon enough learn to ignore the suffering endured by his fellow man. This is the kind of self-perpetuating cycle that winds up with a death row crowded with killers, each of whom may have his own sad story of childhood abuse to explain how he got there.

If there were justice in this world, and the punishment fit the crime all too literally, without the grace of mercy to soften the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and teach us all to walk humbly with our God, all those gleefully watching the abuse of these creatures would themselves be taken up in a light aircraft and then "released," that is, thrown out over Yellville's downtown square to the jeers of the crowd below, young and old alike.

Whatever one thinks of the self-promoting and often enough self-destructive tactics of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they do have a point on sad occasions like this one. Gemma Vaughan, who works for PETA, said that outfit was watching as the sky above Yellville became full of falling turkeys, some dropped by this year's phantom pilot and others thrown from the courthouse roof. That's right -- the courthouse, where law is supposed to be handed down with dignity and decorum. But there's nothing dignified or decorous about this Roman spectacle at Yellville.

"We rescued four turkeys," says PETA's Ms. Vaughan, "one who was trussed by his legs and tossed onto the concrete where he lay panting as spectators walked over him, and another found bleeding from her neck and legs. Both are being rushed to a veterinarian for their injuries. Anywhere else, the participants would be in jail, and officials' failure to prosecute those responsible makes Yellville synonymous with cruelty to animals. The turkey drop is a throwback to a sorry time when human beings were bone-ignorant of animals' feelings."

Some of the celebrants in Yellville were said to be planning to take the dropped turkeys for their holiday dinner. They must have an indestructible digestion to enjoy such a meal knowing the history of the main course.

The turkey drop is supposed to be just good, wholesome fun, its apologists contend. Which may have been what the Romans told each other when they set out for the Colosseum to watch the Christians being fed to the lions.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: animalcruelity; arkansas; delicious; peta; tastey; turkey
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To: Horatio Gates

“Damn...I really miss that show.”

Best show ever.


21 posted on 10/24/2017 5:29:39 PM PDT by tuffydoodle ("Never underestimate the total depravity of the average human being.")
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To: tumblindice

I’ve seen dozens in tall treetops along the CT coast. They didn’t climb there...


22 posted on 10/24/2017 5:36:43 PM PDT by smileyface (Things looking up in RED PA! I love President Trump!)
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To: Horatio Gates
Damn...I really miss that show.

You can thank the perpetual copyright for why it's no longer on the air. They couldn't secure syndication rights for the music played in the show. Thanks Disney!

23 posted on 10/24/2017 6:00:52 PM PDT by zeugma (I always wear my lucky red shirt on away missions!)
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To: smileyface
I’ve seen dozens in tall treetops along the CT coast. They didn’t climb there...

Wild turkeys can fly a bit. Those raised in captivity? Not so much.

24 posted on 10/24/2017 6:03:35 PM PDT by zeugma (I always wear my lucky red shirt on away missions!)
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To: smileyface

American WILD turkeys can fly.

I was driving down a steep grade a wooded section of the Blue Ridge Parkway when a feathered bowling ball (wild turkey) flew out of the trees on the upslope side, across the road in front of me, and into the thin air above the tree tops on the downslope side of the parkway. Being from the upper mid-west I had never seen a wild turkey before that.

The Mexican birds that we eat at Thanksgiving can’t fly. They are engineered to stand around and eat.

Was he dropping the fake Mexican turkeys or genuine American Wild turkeys?


25 posted on 10/24/2017 6:19:25 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

They can’t fly very far. From a tree to the ground, from the ground to a tree. That’s about it. You’re fortunate to have been on the downslope otherwise that feathered bowling ball would have been through your windshield. They’re all over the place now, here in NC. Not even particularly afraid of people, out and about in yards and such like overgrown guinea hens or something.


26 posted on 10/24/2017 6:23:26 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Kaslin

I don’t really see the “fun” in this. The bird I saw in the YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3MbCNodleI

...didn’t ever stabilize and “fly.” I almost had to have been killed on impact, and broken a lot of bones, too.

This is very weird, but it is the state that gave us The Clintons.


27 posted on 10/24/2017 6:39:01 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: SandwicheGuy
I qualify! I qualify! Do I get to state an opinion? Good. Any virtue warrior who harbors an opinion like yours should be tossed out with the turkeys. So there!

Maybe you should buy stock in Bandaids then, to apply to your knuckles while you're crawling around with your buddies. Don't label me---virtue, schmirtue. Cruel is cruel, and it is forbidden to be cruel to animals.

28 posted on 10/24/2017 6:44:33 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: fungoking
How about finding another way to celebrate Thanksgiving that doesn't involve such cruelty? I say kill them, pluck gut and eat. Basted and 325 in the oven or inject and deep fry.

I have no objection to killing the turkeys in order to eat them, provided it is done in as humane and pain-free way as possible--- not by stupid stunts, with the associated terror of falling.

29 posted on 10/24/2017 6:47:07 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: Kaslin
This activity makes zero sense. It's like something you would see in a remote village in an episode of The Twilight Zone - just before the protagonist gets murdered by raving locals in turkey costumes.

Sounds like a town best avodied by all.

30 posted on 10/24/2017 6:47:39 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: tumblindice
I’ve seen turkeys flying low, just a few feet off the water surface, across Tablerock lake (MO/Arkansas) getting ready to roost for the evening. And that’s a big lake. Don’t feel sorry for them. These are lazy turkeys.

The operative term is LOW. And you're talking about WILD turkeys, who do have a limited ability to fly. Domestic turkeys are bred to put meat on their breasts and have no opportunity to build up flight muscles. They can barely walk with the way they've been bred, let alone fly. So you can't compare apples to oranges.

31 posted on 10/24/2017 6:50:04 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: smileyface
I’ve seen dozens in tall treetops along the CT coast. They didn’t climb there...

Were they wild turkeys, as I strongly suspect? Then you can't compare them to heavy domestic turkeys, which cannot fly or can barely fly due to their weight. Your "proof" is not any proof at all that this airplane practice is not cruel.

32 posted on 10/24/2017 7:02:07 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: RegulatorCountry

It did flap its wings a lot as it was gliding down. A desperate motion I perhaps mistook that for flying.

Hopefully wild turkey are not as nasty as wild geese. (Droppings all over the place, very confrontational.)


33 posted on 10/24/2017 7:18:05 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: bicyclerepair

It’s a classic — Well worth doing a YouTube search for it.


34 posted on 10/24/2017 7:22:45 PM PDT by Bob (Damn, the democrats haven't been this upset since Republicans freed their slaves.)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Turkeys are not aggressive like geese generally speaking other than Toms in mating season. But, it’s a good idea to leave them alone, don’t go accosting them, they’re not afraid of you unless you have a weapon of some sort. Try chasing them off, they’ll turn around and chase you. A good-sized Tom can lay a hurting on you, too.


35 posted on 10/24/2017 7:26:28 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: EinNYC

Were they wild turkeys or were they turkey vultures?


36 posted on 10/24/2017 7:36:23 PM PDT by stellaluna
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To: RegulatorCountry

Almost like mobile lawn ornaments. Tolerable if the droppings are not too bad. Less noisy than Peafowl too, I imagine.


37 posted on 10/24/2017 8:26:52 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: EinNYC

Were they wild turkeys, as I strongly suspect? Then you can’t compare them to heavy domestic turkeys, which cannot fly or can barely fly due to their weight. Your “proof” is not any proof at all that this airplane practice is not cruel.


Please provide data on wild vs domestic turkey flying abilities. The ones I witnessed in CT were big. They were everywhere where I was in CT, an in my yard too. I counted a flock of over 50 one day at my office workplace, when I drove right up to the flock. The turkeys were not terribly wild, but not domesticated either.

I did not weigh in on cruelty.


38 posted on 10/25/2017 3:52:51 AM PDT by smileyface (Things looking up in RED PA! I love President Trump!)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

They don’t drop dog-sized turds like a Canada Goose but I doubt cultivating a large flock of wild turkey would lead to a yard that is very neat. They tend to wander, showing up in a given yard almost on a timetable. They can be aggressive during mating season, relatively innocuous otherwise but challenging a tom trying to run him off will lead to him fanning out and charging back at you, mating season or not.

https://youtu.be/zAfl0MBOvzs


39 posted on 10/25/2017 8:35:00 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: smileyface
You can read about wild turkeys vs. domestic turkeys at many websites, such as here. The websites all say that while wild turkeys can fly limited distances, domesticated turkeys generally cannot fly due to their great weight and weak flying muscles.
40 posted on 10/25/2017 12:02:09 PM PDT by EinNYC
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