Hotelier plans to throw turkeys off tower to see if they fly ...

by BirdBrain Wed Nov 11, 2009 03:34

Mike, You're talking about wild turkeys not grossly fattened factory farmed birds pumped up with hormones etc to fatten them quickly. I'll bet some of those would fall like a stone and meet their fate on the pavement.

Again not condoning cruelty here, in fact highlighting the real cruelty behind turkey breeding , given the season thats in it. People reading this, you can show real concern for the fate of turkeys by eating something else (and probably much healthier) other than factory farmed turkey for xmas.

"Release the hostages or the ex president gets it!"

by Mike Novack Wed Nov 11, 2009 02:49

From the land where they are a native wild species, let me assure you, turkeys most certainly can fly. They don't normally bother flying very high or very far, since the only reason to leave the ground is to escape from a predator that they can't outrun -- if caught in the open (crashing through heavy brush turkeys are very fast indeed). So normally it's just get up high enough to get to a lower limb of a tree within 100 meters or two (they would very rarely stray into an area so open that there wasn't a safe perch within a distance like that. However they will sometimes go higher.). I've seen them go up over 20 meters.

So no, drop them from a tower and they won't crash to the ground. Think of your own "ground birds". Your grouse, like ours, also don't usually fly very high or very far but that doesn't mean one wouldn't land safely if dropped from a tower. Or the familiar pheasant (which isn't native), peacocks either. Turkeys fly every bit as well as those. Just less jittery about staying on the ground as they aren't scared of small predators and like I said, fast movers through brush.

You don't have any remaining wild predators that could cause a turkey to take to the air. They don't fear an itty bitty fox.

NOTE: This was NOT to suggest such silly a stunt wasn't misuse of an animal. Just debunking the notion that turkeys can't fly.

by John Carmody - ARAN Tue Nov 10, 2009 20:50 arancampaigns at eircom dot net

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback, good or bad it's welcome!!!

Yes you can be sure ARAN would be doing whatever we could to stop this hideous planned turkey throw. Regardless if it was a real idea or just a sick publicity stunt, it helped us once again to get our message out about animal rights and cruelty to animals into the public arena. Thankfully this story has been covered widely on many radio stations and newspapers across Northern Ireland helping to direct people's attention to the animals plight.

But let us here at ARAN make it clear, if this ever does go ahead in the future we certainly will be standing by ready to move mountains to stop it.

Thank you.

by Concerned socialist - Reality Check Tue Nov 10, 2009 15:52

....anyone who seriously planned on protesting at this event is an imbecile. This is, LITERALLY, the oldest trick in the book of generating publicity. It used to be common for cinema owners to announce that they were going to give a baby away during the main feature; when the time came, it was a baby pig. Nice to see suckers are still suckers a century on.

by John Carmody - Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) Tue Nov 10, 2009 13:34 arancampaigns at eircom dot net

ARAN had a demonstration planned and phone blockade took place of this joint until the good news it's not going ahead - an injuction was also been sought by PETA Europe plus more....Even turkey's have rights.

Thanks to everyone who got involved and of course the calls and email.