Turkey Terror Updates

I'm shocked to find that it's been a year since we covered the wild turkey situation. With apologies for neglecting this important issue, here are a few recent incidents showing that their incursions have not slowed down:

-A normal Friday morning was interrupted at a high school in Brockton, Massachusetts, when a turkey crashed through a third floor window into a classroom. Fortunately it was before class had started, but enough people were around to get photos and video.

-In Michigan, a woman is being stalked in her own home by a tom she's nicknamed Godzilla.

He lurks in her front yard, screeching at her constantly, even jumping out occasionally and attacking her when she dares wander outside alone.

"I'm afraid to go out of my house," said Geisler, 69. "I have to go to the post office at 6 o'clock in the morning to avoid him."

When she returned home with groceries recently, Geisler couldn't get in her front door.

"I had to go next door to the neighbors and have him use a push broom to keep him away while I brought the groceries in," Geisler said.

The bird seems to treat harassing this woman as his job, commuting in from a nearby woods each morning and returning in the evening. A wildlife official suggests scaring the bird off with a big umbrella, but a reporter notes another possible strategy: turkey hunting season begins in just a few weeks.

-And a neighborhood in northeast Minneapolis is living with an entire flock of turkeys which stroll boldly down the street as in the photo above.

A recent community meeting heard reports that a woman had to beat the birds off when they attacked her toddler and a postal worker had one jump on her back.

But some downplay the danger. "At most, they are a 15 to 20 pound bird. What harm are they going to do to you?" said a wildlife officer. And many encourage the birds by feeding them.

Worst of all, some even celebrate the enemy: One local store reportedly sells a t-shirt reading "I heart the Johnson Street turkeys."

Turkey Revenge in the Big City

This blog has been covering the turkey menace since the beginning, most recently with actual video of an attack on a mail truck.

Don't fool yourself that you're safe because your Thanksgiving dinner takes place in an urban area. Follow the links in that first post and you'll see that as far back as 2007 turkeys were harrassing pedestrians on the main shopping street in Brookline, MA, just over the border from Boston. We've also seen them in Philadelphia. And if that doesn't convince you, how about New York City?

OK, so it's just Staten Island (says the kid from the Bronx) but that IS legally New York City. And it's only a ferry ride or strut across the bridge before the hipsters of Brooklyn and soon after, the bankers of Wall Street could be in their sights.

And remember, these are New York turkeys now. They don't mess around, as a couple of quotes from the Daily News reveal:

"The filthy animals are like a gang. They take over the street and yards and poop everywhere. It's disgusting."

"I one time saw a man at the red light taunting a turkey. His window was down and he was making noises at it. Next thing you know the light turned green and the turkey started chasing the car down the street, pecking at it."

Although this situation is getting a lot of coverage this year, it's not new. Local government has been trying without success to deal with the situation since at least 2007. Back then, one local commented:

"People with young children are afraid because the turkeys are very, very brazen. They’ll chase after dogs. They will sometimes get aggressive with people. And if you’re walking under the trees, it’s just like any bird: Plop!”

But ineffectual attempts at control have combined as usual with humans not knowing which side they are on. When one man frustrated by government inaction took the situation into his own hands, he was convicted of attempted animal cruelty for firing a barrage of bottle rockets at the turkeys.

So numbers have continued to grow, and the birds have only grown bolder. Another victim told the Daily News:

"It was straight out of 'Cujo,'" said dental assistant Gina Guaragno, 23. "I'm sitting in my car Facebooking on my phone when turkeys jumped on my windshield.

"I screamed like I was being murdered. They just kept looking at me like it was their car. I felt trapped. I was so scared."

The only small comfort we can take is that these may be New York turkeys, but they're up against New York humans: says one local,

"I've seen people grab them and put them in their cars always around Thanksgiving time. They are turkeys. It's Thanksgiving. They should look out or they will become someone's dinner."

Up close with a Staten Island turkey gang by brave Flickr user dazedeffect.

Animals vs. Vehicles Week, part one

Back at the end of January, a turkey attacked a mail truck in the town of Centreville, MA. We've seen this sort of thing more than once, of course. This time, though, there's video of an actual attack:

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Fortunately, authorities did not take the situation lying down. In early February, they attempted to net the culprit. Using a mail truck as bait they successfully lured it out of the woods, but it evaded capture:

At first the turkey only had eyes for the mail truck. (Is it love, lust, hate? We may never know.) But then the turkey-truck tango was disrupted by the guy with the net.

Slowly, Zimmer edged around the truck, with the grace of Fred Astaire, except for the giant net. But the turkey awoke from his truck-reverie just in time and edged away.

Zimmer pursued the turkey around the truck and into a neighboring yard. Just when it seemed he might have the turkey cornered, the bird took to the air and flew across the street, where it appeared to be thumbing his wattle at would-be captors.

(You can watch video of the attempt here.)

At the same time, one prominent local family who you'd think had enough publicity on their own tried to ride the turkey's tail feathers into the news: Ethel Kennedy claimed that the bird was one that she'd bought at Thanksgiving that had escaped from her property.

After widespread coverage of this development, the farmer who'd sold turkeys to the Kennedys denied that this was possible, saying that the perpetrator was too old to be one they had bought.

Finally, in mid-February, wildlife officials upgraded their weaponry, and once again using a mail truck as bait, caught the turkey with a hand-held gun that shoots out a net.

The tom's imprisonment sounds like it's going to be pretty cushy, though. Amy Travers, education coordinator of the wildlife education facility where he's now incarcerated, seems a bit overexcited about the new arrival: "He's making our dreams come true," she told the Cape Cod Times, explaining that he'll be part of lessons about the role of turkeys in American history.

And he's not in solitary confinement: far from it, at the end of February, the facility provided him with a girlfriend.

But the bird will be kept a safe distance from visitors, and his enclosure has been chosen to avoid provoking his violent tendencies, says Travers:

"The mail truck usually doesn't drive back here — he stays all the way out front."

Turkey day video roundup

It's hard to get worked up about the fact that the president pardoned another turkey this year when most of them never get convicted in the first place. What's one more offender running loose? If you're feeling bad about the bird in your oven, re-read our previous posts to remind yourself that they'd do the same to us if they had the chance. And check out just a few examples of the video evidence:

A turkey attacks a man on a motorcycle;

A mailman in Michigan has to carry a weapon to fend off gangs of attacking turkeys;

And don't expect your dogs to keep you safe even if you have big scary pitbulls.



The truth about birds, illustrated, from Toothpaste for Dinner.

Game bird revolt crosses the pond

Perhaps it's no surprise that it all began where Thanksgiving started: For years, turkeys have been attacking people in Massachussetts.

But recently, as we saw in November, the same behavior has sprung up elsewhere: in Philadelphia, and although the tactics were different, I think we can also count the turkey in New Jersey who was trying to cause accidents at a freeway exit.

A more ominous development has now come out of England - you know, the old England. Since there are no wild turkeys there, it appears that other tasty game birds are being recruited to the cause - in this case, a pheasant. According to The Telegraph:

The vicious bird has launched several unprovoked attacks on villagers in recent weeks.

Men, women, children, prams, bikes, dogs and cars are said to have have fallen foul of the bird in Newsham, near Richmond, North Yorkshire.

There are tales of the plucky cock lying in wait for children to get off the school bus, before chasing them screaming to the village green.

One grandmother was left with a scar on her leg after being unable to beat the bird off with her handbag, and the postman is reportedly unwilling to deliver mail to the village for fear of attack. Another resident says that the bird tried to get into her house.

Despite treating the entire town like his property, the pheasant's main residence is the yard of one villager, who, like many of the people involved in these incidents, is entirely unclear whose side she is on. At first, she sounds like someone who's got her head screwed on straight:

"At first we thought he was a friendly bird because he would always like to come out and make his presence felt when anyone called round.

But he's actually quite an unpleasant bird, not very nice at all. He jumps up at the kids' school bags. It's worrying how he's gone on to attack people."

But then she goes on:

"We are happy enough for him to stay for the time being but if the attacks go on I'm sure he won't be around for long.

We haven't seen him for a couple of days which is a bit worrying."

People, when will you learn?



Photo of mad-eyed pheasant, hopefully via zoom lens from a great distance, from The Telegraph.

Turkeys are out for revenge

If you decide to take a little stroll to work off some of that turkey dinner today, watch your back.

We've previously seen turkeys attacking in New England. Now the Philadelphia Inquirer reports they're getting out of hand in their area as well. As usual, some people invite trouble by feeding the birds, encouraging them to hang around. To start, their activities may seem innocent on the surface:

Last week in Mountville, Lancaster County, two turkeys tried to buddy up to customers and employees at B&J Automotive.

They sat on the building's roof and watched traffic on busy Route 462, tailgated on the back of a truck, and wandered into the middle of the street.

"People blow their horns and flash lights and the turkeys just look at them," said Joe Miller, who owns the shop.

But elsewhere in the Philly area, residents saw what it can lead to when you buddy up to turkeys:

In September, five turkeys who had wandered onto Brookmead Drive in Cherry Hill were caught by a local cameraman appearing to menace a little boy who had a bicycle. A woman nearby, presumably his mother, snatched him out of harm's way and ran away screaming.

The video got posted in YouTube, and as of today had received nearly 200,000 hits.

The animals were rounded up by the township's animal control officer.

"We had some turkeys that had gone wild - literally," Cherry Hill spokesman Dan Keashen said.

Keashen said turkeys aren't usually violent. "But apparently these turkeys were being harassed by kids in the neighborhood. They were pretty riled up," he said.

People were also feeding them, which would make them want to stick around, he said.

Consider yourself warned.

See the video set to a rap song with a ton of cussing here. And if I haven't gotten you worried enough, just try searching "turkey attack" while you're over there at YouTube.

Photo once again by birdman Misterqueue.

No turkey trouble for Thanksgiving at exit 14B

Turkey Week here at Animals Behaving Badly has been partially pre-empted: a turkey that has been disrupting traffic on the New Jersey turnpike was captured and relocated just in time for the holidays. The Associated Press reports that the wild bird has been making its home at exit 14B since the Spring, causing problems by dashing in and out of traffic and prompting people to do the same in order to take pictures. She also made toll takers look bad:

"Apparently, this turkey decided to make Jersey City her home, alongside of one of the top five busiest toll roads in America," said turnpike spokesman Joe Orlando.

"She didn't want to leave, she was a regular, and to be honest with you, she probably had better attendance than a lot of the employees."

Despite this, as is typical, staff had no idea what side they were on. They nicknamed the bird "Tammy" and one collector who enjoyed feeding the turkey Cracker Jacks was going to miss her, she said: "I think I'm going to have empty nest syndrome."

See the video here.

Reign of turkey terror continues in Massachusetts

Turkeys interfere with delivery of US Mail

ROCKPORT - Nearly every day over the last five months, an average of 10 turkeys — led by a pair of male "ring leaders" — have been chasing and attempting to peck a postal worker on his route along Marmion Way and South Street...

The local post office stopped delivering mail to several South Street homes after an incident Jan. 15 when a number of passers-by stopped to help the postal worker as he was being chased by the quick-trotting turkeys.

"Last week, people had to intervene so (the mail carrier) could get back to his truck," Russell said yesterday. "He was trying to wave a bag full of mail at the turkeys as he ran when some folks pulled over to shoo the turkeys away."

Turkeys have been similarly harassing innocent citizens in the Boston area since at least 2007, as reported by NPR and the Boston Globe.

(Threatening turkey from photo from Boston.com/Boston Globe.)