Sponsor a Turkey to save it's life

[jebbewocky]

Their animals are not purchased or stolen from food farms, but are generally part of rescue efforts when the authorities are called in for animal cruelty issues. They also often take farm animals that were abandoned or that escaped, and people have a tendency to dump unwanted farm animals there as well. Don't worry - it's quite on the up and up, they wouldn't want to risk their legal status as a 501(c) with direct action or anything that extreme.

Ok, so it's not saving it's life from slaughter then, but from a life of neglect.
Still neat though.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

A bit of both, really, because many of the animals would have still been sent to slaughter after a life of abusive or neglectful treatment. Many of them came from various situations in stockyards, transport vehicle accidents, abuse/neglect investigations of fully operational commercial farms, etc.

They also help out a lot when natural disasters hit industrial farms since the options are generally unfavorable; during Katrina pigs that escaped and were frantically trying to get out of the floodwaters were being shot en masse because it was feared they'd knock down the flood barriers, for example. Farm took on a number of those pigs, because the only other options besides being shot or starved would probably be auction if they were eventually rounded up. And another year they saved something like.... I believe 700 chickens after a big farm was wrecked by tornados. The birds were injured and dehydrated and in crushed cages, and were being bulldozed into a big container and gassed. I saw the footage, it was... well, bulldozing live birds is not very humane. I guess more humane than letting them die of injuries and exposure, but it was nice that someone stepped up with the option of saving some of them.

 

[codykrr]

No, a domestic turkey would NOT survive in the wild, for the exact reasons that you mentioned. Wild turkeys and domestic turkeys are as different as timber wolves and English Bulldogs, from a physical perspective. Same species, but VERY different body structure. Domestic turkeys have been selectively bred for huge pectoral muscles, that tasty, tender white breast meat coveted by us carnivores. Wild turkeys, on the other hand, are all dark meat, with tough, sinewy muscles designed for actual FLIGHT-yes, they can FLY, and pretty darn well for such a large bird! Domestic turkeys cannot. Wild turkeys can run like a deer, and vanish like a puff of smoke at the first hint of danger. One second there can be 100+ birds foraging away in an open field, and in the blink of an eye, not one turkey can be seen! Don't let their looks deceive you; wild turkeys are clever, intelligent birds who learn very quickly what a gun is and that humans are little threat without one. We have a lot of wild turkeys living on our property, and although several people have permission to come hunt them during the brief spring turkey season, not ONE has been successful, due to the birds' intelligence and skill at avoiding predators of all sorts, two-legged, camoflage-clad predators included. Hunting turkeys is very much an art and a skill that few hunters will master.

pitbulllady

Sorry, but I need to correct a few things.

1st- wild turkeys are not all dark meat. there breast are white as a domestic counter part. and are VERY tender.

2nd- wild turkeys are stupid. VERY STUPID! so stupid that they will kill themselves by looking up into rain and drowning. Also, they defiantly dont "learn" what hunters look like, and cant recognise guns.

3rd- while yeah they are pretty fast. they arent near as fast as you make them out to be. a human cant catch one no. but wild dogs, and things do.

also, Yes they can fly for about 1 mile. at heights of about 150 feet to 200 feet. they have very low stamina, therefor tire easily. which leads them to being vulnerable to wild predators...like bobcats, dogs, coyote.

 

[jebbewocky]

Sorry, but I need to correct a few things.

1st- wild turkeys are not all dark meat. there breast are white as a domestic counter part. and are VERY tender.

2nd- wild turkeys are stupid. VERY STUPID! so stupid that they will kill themselves by looking up into rain and drowning. Also, they defiantly dont "learn" what hunters look like, and cant recognise guns.3rd- while yeah they are pretty fast. they are near as fast as you make them out to be. a human cant catch one no. but wild dogs, and things do.

also, Yes they can fly for about 1 mile. at heights of about 150 feet to 200 feet. they have very low stamina, therefor tire easily. which leads them to being vulnerable to wild predators...like bobcats, dogs, coyote.

That's a myth, and the myth is regarding domestic turkeys anyway.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/turkey.asp

I didn't notice the darkmeat thing, or I would have pointed that out as well.
They don't fly very well from an objective standpoint, but they do pretty good when you take into account that that are ridicoulously big, pear-shaped birds.

 

[codykrr]

Not a myth.

they have done it. They do it though not out of stupidity but rather a genetic disorder called:

tetanic torticollar spasms

So technically it isnt because they are "stupid" but rather a stupid genetic trait.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

cody, you may want to read some cognitive studies on turkeys before writing them off as stupid. Neither wild nor domesticated turkeys are "stupid" birds and considering their well studied ability to learn and remember specific locations (particularly those with favorable food sources), I don't think it is a huge stretch to think that they might be able to learn and remember unfavorable stimuli as well. Even if they can't learn the look of a hunter and gun (though I doubt this is the case - most birds have excellent vision and a good ability to distinguish between objects), I bet they could absolutely remember the location of a hunting stand or area that turkey hunters frequent.

That being said, the turkeys back in NY had become so "suburbanized" that I'm pretty sure I could have walked out in my back yard most mornings in the fall, thrown a stick, and hit a wild turkey. And it probably would have sat there and glared at me instead of taking wing. Like most animals that become acclimated to human presence, they lose much of their fear and elusiveness in populated areas.

 

[codykrr]

I have been hunting turkey since I was a wee tot. Never met one I thought was "smart" or even semi "intelligent".

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Sorry, I tend to trust the scienific findings of behaviorists and cognitive ethologists who closely study these animals over one's opinion.

 

[stevetastic]

I have been hunting turkey since I was a wee tot. Never met one I thought was "smart" or even semi "intelligent".

Maybe because you shot them before you had a chance to get to know one.

I have worked with turkeys in zoos and they are as trainable as any dog if not more so.

As far as them being difficult to hunt i dunno if they are more wary where you all live but I have regularly walked up to several wild groups of turkeys (within a few feet) and have seen one get easily picked off by a bobcat. I feel like a gun has much more range than a bobcat.

 

[pitbulllady]

Sorry, but I need to correct a few things.

1st- wild turkeys are not all dark meat. there breast are white as a domestic counter part. and are VERY tender.

2nd- wild turkeys are stupid. VERY STUPID! so stupid that they will kill themselves by looking up into rain and drowning. Also, they defiantly dont "learn" what hunters look like, and cant recognise guns.

3rd- while yeah they are pretty fast. they arent near as fast as you make them out to be. a human cant catch one no. but wild dogs, and things do.

also, Yes they can fly for about 1 mile. at heights of about 150 feet to 200 feet. they have very low stamina, therefor tire easily. which leads them to being vulnerable to wild predators...like bobcats, dogs, coyote.

Wild dogs and "other things" also catch deer, with fairly regular frequency, but that doesn't prove that deer aren't fast. It just means that the carnivores are more clever. We have a very healthy population of native, and not-so-native, predators here, and they haven't made much of a dent in the turkey population at all. The only thing that has are the fire ants, which destroy the eggs and drive setting hens away from their nests.

The MYTH(yes, you read that correctly)that turkeys are so stupid that they will drown while looking up at the rain is a WIVES' TALE. An urban legend. AND it's domestic turkeys that it refers to, NOT wild ones. Anyone who makes that absurd claim has obviously never, ever observed many wild turkeys. I have spent many decades around wild animals like deer and turkeys, hunting them and observing them and learning much from other, older hunters, and I have far more confidence in my own experience and that of the other long-time outdoorsmen than of anyone who believes an urban legend and repeats it as fact. See http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/turkey.asp
Your stating this myth as fact pretty much shot down your credibility on everything else.

Yes, I've cooked wild turkeys. Not much, if any, white meat can be found on those birds. "White meat" on a bird indicates few blood vessels and much fat, which domesticated birds have been bred for. It makes for tender eating and poor flight capabilities, two highly desirable characteristics in domesticated poultry.

pitbulllady

 

[Offkillter]

I agree with pittbulllady we raised many turkeys in Idaho and never one drowning.They might not be very bright but they are not dumb.

 

[stevetastic]

Not a myth.

they have done it. They do it though not out of stupidity but rather a genetic disorder called:

tetanic torticollar spasms

So technically it isnt because they are "stupid" but rather a stupid genetic trait.

"Tetanic torticollar spasms (TT) refers to a neurologic disorder observed in a line of Medium White turkeys."

Source

Correct me if I am wrong but wild turkeys are not a line of medium white turkeys right?

Domestication caused a genetic abnormality and that can't be used to describe the intelligence of the progenitor species.

 

[bugmankeith]

Official turkey pardoning by President Obama. I never actually saw it before on video, so sharing it with you. http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/raw-video-obama-pardons-thanksgiving-turkey-23182946

And as far as the turkey debate about being stupid and easy to catch, if that were true, they would be extinct by now. So i'm thinking they are pretty darn smart and we dont want to accept that.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

In the interest of the original topic (rescuing turkeys as opposed to hunting them), I'd like to mention that FS just accepted 8 turkeys from the Erie SPCA. Around thanksgiving, a lot of folks seem to try and play farmer and think they will either a) raise a turkey and slaughter it, then wind up backing out when the family gets attached or b) raise several turkeys thinking they'll sell them at profit, only to be sorely diappointed and wind up dumping them. Thus each year, the requests to Farm to take turkeys in tends to spike a bit. These turkeys were "b" - a man bought them to raise, and for whatever reason abandoned them, after which his family very kindly brought them to the SPCA. You can read about it here.

 

[bugmankeith]

Thanks for the link!

And by the way, I sponsored Reese this year.

 

[bugmankeith]

Turkey Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM-iSqmJ9_4

 

[RoachGirlRen]

I actually have some pictures from the last couple of years, here are a few highlights

Can I just say that I have no idea who this woman is but I think she is fantastic? Gosh, she looks so happy!

(I was feeding my favorite gentleman, Merino)

(Background was grayscaled; I wanted to show off his colors)

 

[bugmankeith]

Thanks for sharing, I would have loved to go and see it if I had the chance.

 

[Kathy]

Great photos! That was a prize winning photo of the woman you don't know. Thanks for sharing these!