CORINNE, Utah -- An apparently deranged turkey's behavior proved threatening enough, even for this rural north Box Elder town, that police had to intervene.
Spoiler alert: The honored bird, a holiday icon, does not survive this tale.
Calls came in to emergency dispatchers from victims who said the big bird's behavior led them to believe it was a wild turkey. It was attacking children.
At first during the near two-hour adventure Sunday evening, the local animal control officer was summoned. Who said the office had no authority over turkeys, according to the dispatch log.
An hour after the initial call to dispatch the family under attack called back to say the turkey had now attacked the family dog as well as the children.
"A deputy arrived and saw the bird's behavior, attacking the children and the dog, and ended up shooting the turkey," said Chief Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Potter. "He saw it in that attack posture and he put it down."
It turned out the animal was not wild, he said, but a domestic turkey. The owner was identified and contacted to come collect the deceased.
"He could have been cited under the vicious animal ordinance," Potter said. But since there were no injuries, he wasn't.
If the bird was a wild turkey, he said, the state Division of Wildlife Resources, game wardens, would have had to be involved.
The deputy's supervisor was called to the scene to make a report, policy for any discharge of a firearm. Potter said it was the first turkey attack he could recall in his 20-plus years with the sheriff's office.
The county is the site of permit hunts for wild turkeys in several locations.
Copyright 2013 - Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
