Arkansas Town Is Dropping Live Turkeys From Plane Again This Year

For some, turkey drop refers to the Thanksgiving-vacation breakup that commonly occurs for college freshmen in long-distance relationships.Not in Yellville, Arkansas. There, the phrase refers to a longstanding tradition of dropping live turkeys from a plane 500 feet in the air at the towns annual Turkey Trot fall festival.The practice is continuing this year, despiteopposition from animal rights groups and social media users after an Arkansas Times blog post condemning the drop went viral.On Friday, six turkeys were chucked from the plane. One died on impact, while five were able to use their wings to glide to the ground, Arkansas Online reports. Spectators caught two of the surviving turkeys. One turkey-catcher told the news outlet his family will eat the bird, while another said he didnt know what hed do with the turkey because he hadnt thought that far ahead.More turkeys were set to be dropped on Saturday.Though no video footage of this years dropped appears to have surfaced yet, clips from previous festivals are available on YouTube. Defenders of the drop point out that wild turkeys can fly, so throwing them from the plane wont kill them. That defense would seem to be weakened by the death of one of the birds at Fridays festival. Its also unclear whether the turkeys are wild or domesticated. The moderator of a community Facebook page for the Turkey Trot did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.But even though some of the turkeys are able to survive the drop, the experience itself is terrifying, poultry science professor Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton told Arkansas Online.Placing turkeys in an environment that is new to them is stressful, she said. In the case of an airplane, the noise would also be a stress-producing fear reaction. Dropping one from 500 feet is a horrific act of abuse. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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