PETA Offers Up to $5,000 Reward to Nab 'Turkey Drop' Culprits

Tossing Birds From Airplanes Violates Arkansas State Cruelty-to-Animals Law

For Immediate Release:
October 4, 2011

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382 

Yellville, Ark. -- Days before the annual Turkey Trot Festival, which has traditionally included a "Turkey Drop" in which wild turkeys—who typically fly only as high as 100 feet at best—are hurled from airplanes traveling at around 70 miles per hour and at altitudes of 1,000 feet, PETA is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any participant in the cruel and malicious "drop." Reports of disoriented birds plummeting like bricks and fatally colliding with buildings, cars, and streets are common. Birds who catch the wind under their wings careen into the landscape at devastatingly high speeds, and those who do not die on impact are believed to suffer grievous injuries. PETA cautions that this callous activity is in violation of Arkansas state anti-cruelty laws and has called upon the Arkansas State Police to monitor the festival and all regional airports.

"Obviously, turkeys feel pain and fear just as any cat or dog does. If the Turkey Trot Festival included a 'puppy drop,' the participants would be thrown in jail," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Tossing any animal out of a plane to plummet to the ground and die is maliciously cruel—and that means it's also illegal."

Although the city of Yellville has declared that the Turkey Drop is not sanctioned by the festival, the cruel activity has continued.

Anyone with information about Turkey Drop participants is encouraged to immediately contact PETA at 757-622-7382 or CIDInfo@peta.org.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.