The turkey drop is a bizarre tradition that has occurred for over 70 years in Arkansas. It involves tossing live turkeys from an airplane as part of the annual Yellville Turkey Trot festival. While some locals defend it as harmless fun, animal rights activists condemn it as cruel This strange custom has triggered heated debate and repeated attempts to ban it over the decades
A Long History
The turkey drop first started in the 1940s as a way to promote the wild turkey population in Arkansas, which is a top turkey-producing state The initial drops involved throwing turkeys off the roof of the Marion County Courthouse during the festival In the 1960s, they switched to releasing the birds from a flying airplane instead. The thinking was that the turkeys would fly away into the wilderness, thus boosting numbers.
The festival organizers officially stopped endorsing the turkey drop in the late 1980s after facing backlash. But mysterious “Phantom Pilots” have kept it going anyway. There were no turkey drops from 2012-2014 but they resumed again in 2015. The identity of the new phantom pilot is unknown. However, previous ones have included local residents and even a town alderman.
Animal Cruelty Concerns
The main criticism of the turkey drop is that it constitutes animal cruelty. Groups like PETA argue that it terrorizes and injures the birds. Wild turkeys do have the ability to fly. However, they usually only fly close to the ground between trees, not from high altitudes. Turkeys dropped from planes are released hundreds of feet in the air, which likely causes them distress.
There are reports of turkeys dying from the impact of hitting the ground. Even turkeys that survive can suffer injuries and be chased by the crowds below. The human handling involved in capturing the birds and bringing them aboard planes could also be considered mistreatment. Overall, the turkey drop seems to prioritize novelty and spectacle over the turkeys’ welfare.
Ongoing Controversy and Legal Issues
The turkey drop generates opposition every year from animal lovers and draws negative media coverage. However, local officials claim their hands are tied when it comes to stopping it. The Federal Aviation Administration says it has no authority to prohibit dropping live animals from planes. The Arkansas State Police assert they have no jurisdiction unless a crime is committed.
Critics have tried filing legal complaints against the phantom pilots under the state’s animal cruelty law. But so far, no charges have stuck since the pilots’ identities are secret. The county sheriff has declined to investigate incidents from previous years. The turkey drop happens for a short time on a specific weekend annually, making it hard to take legal action in advance.
Differing Perspectives
Defenders of the tradition in Yellville argue that outsiders shouldn’t interfere with their culture and that the turkey drop doesn’t harm turkeys. They view outsiders’ outrage as misguided. Supporters enjoy the attention it brings to their small town and the excitement of the event. For them, it’s an integral part of the Turkey Trot festival’s identity tied to cherished childhood memories.
However, the perspective of animal welfare advocates is that needlessly distressing and endangering turkeys for entertainment is unethical, no matter how engrained the tradition may be. Public opinion on the issue seems divided along these lines both inside and outside Arkansas. The turkey drop has undeniable shock value and cultural significance, but also raises animal protection concerns that many find disturbing.
Recent Developments
In recent years, Yellville has tried to formally disassociate itself from the turkey drop amidst criticism. The Chamber of Commerce no longer endorses it. The phantom pilots operate independently of the festival now in a sort of legal gray area. Animal rights groups like PETA continue applying public pressure to stop it for good.
The Festival of the Wild Turkey in Huntsville, Arkansas faced similar backlash over turkey drops and eventually agreed to use dead, store-bought turkeys only. However, Yellville insists on sticking to tradition and using live ones, believing people will lose interest without the controversial thrill factor. For now, the turkey drop’s fate remains up in the air amidst a complex clash of values and traditions. This unique custom seems likely to keep provoking debate for years to come.
Yellville: 9
Turkey drop: 8
Festival: 6
Turkeys: 11
Animal rights: 4
PETA: 2
Phantom pilots: 3
Marion County Courthouse: 1
Federal Aviation Administration: 1
Arkansas State Police: 1
“A Thanksgiving story about the limits of human empathy.” – The Atlantic
For about seventy years, since the 1940s, the rural town of Yellville, Arkansas in the Ozarks has dropped live turkeys from an airplane as part of its annual October Turkey Trot Festival. Most years, the Yellville Area Chamber of Commerce has either sponsored the “turkey drop” or let it be done unofficially. This year, however, as we reported in the Summer issue of Poultry Press, the Mid-Marion County Rotary Club assumed sponsorship of the festival, “but only if no live turkeys are on the premises or dropped from airplanes,” Rotary Club president elect Stan Duffy told reporters.
In April, the Chamber of Commerce announced it would no longer sponsor the festival, because the bad publicity generated by animal activists had become “detrimental to local businesses.”
So this year, October came and went with no word about the festival.
But in November, an article about the Yellville “turkey drop” was published on The Atlantic magazine’s website. In “Tossing a Bird that Does Not Fly Out of a Plane,” journalist Annie Lowrey describes her visit to this year’s festival, where “much to the dismay and consternation of many locals – there are no live turkeys. None in a cage towed behind a pickup. None thrown from the courthouse roof. None pitched off the bandstand and picked up by screaming teenagers. And none dropped out of an airplane.”
Linking to a United Poultry Concerns internet post dated October 14, 2015, in which we quoted from the December 5, 1989 National Enquirer photo-article, “Helpless Birds Crippled & Killed in Festival of Death,” Lowrey cites the documentary evidence and eyewitness testimonies of what happens “when you drop a turkey from hundreds of feet in the air. The panicked animals try to right themselves. Some catch a gust. Others do not. Some die when they hit the ground. Others survive with broken bones. Yet others are grievously injured when they are fought over by local kids. Some perish of apparent shock.”
Many Ozark residents work in poultry slaughter plants, into which Lowrey provides a glimpse of the ongoing human brutality and animal agony. Residents say they don’t see why animal activists focus on the turkey drop, affecting only a few turkeys, compared with the thousands of turkeys being slaughtered every day for meateaters, many of whom may oppose dropping turkeys from an airplane, while defending or not caring about what turkeys endure to be eaten.
The “limits of empathy” in most people include her own attitude, Lowrey writes. In essence, the conundrum boils down to: “The Turkey Trot is a carnival of disgusting and tasteless excess, but Thanksgiving is just Thanksgiving.”
Tucked in the article is Lowrey’s moving account of meeting a turkey in Yellville named George, who survived being thrown from a plane and now lives with a family who loves and respects him. George’s companion, Paul, survived the airplane ordeal only to die soon after reaching this haven of peace, and George has suffered emotionally from the loss of his friend.
Lowrey’s treatment of this sadness is sensitive but also rather mocking, as if her own sensitivity and the feelings of a turkey or any “animal” cannot or should not be taken too seriously. Most people, it seems, can care about a single animal or two, but not about thousands or millions of them. Yet the “limits of empathy” theory is ambiguous, since learning to care about one animal has led many people to care about all the “anonymous” ones as well.
Though no turkeys were visible at this year’s festival, Keith Edmonds of the Chamber of Commerce told Lowrey afterward, “You know, there were actually turkeys released from a plane this year. It was just kept quiet, I guess. Happened on Friday, They released on the south end of the city limits and I don’t know for sure if or how many were released on Saturday.”
Lowrey: “Do you know anybody who might have either seen it happen or picked up the birds?”
Edmonds: “I just know about it from a Facebook post. No idea.”
This tip takes her to Yellville resident Wesley Shipman, who says, “Nothing was hurt or anything. I never even got out of my vehicle.”
Birds were not thrown from a plane this year, just off the back of a truck – a “small, private bird-throwing event for devoted locals.”
Shipman, “It’s nothing official, so everybody goes away happy.”
Butterball is constructing a huge new turkey slaughter plant just outside of Yellville. As long as people eat turkeys and other farmed animals, there will always be “Hellville” including the types of “sports” that arise instinctively from cultures of slaughter.
Yellville turkey drop (1983) | 5NEWS Vault
Is the turkey trot just Thanksgiving?
The Turkey Trot is a carnival of disgusting and tasteless excess, but Thanksgiving is just Thanksgiving. Of course, none of this incongruity was lost on the people in Yellville, many of whom keep animals at home and work in turkey-processing plants and grew up on farms.
What is a turkey trot?
Children watch a boy climbing a tree to grab a turkey that landed in branches. (Wallace Kirkland / The Life Picture Collection / Getty) The Turkey Trot is tradition in a part of the country where tradition still matters, where the people are big- C Conservative and small- c conservative, too: That was a consistent refrain I heard in Yellville.
Are turkeys covered by the humane methods of Slaughter Act?
Turkeys, like chickens, are not covered by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. This means there are few penalties for companies that grievously mistreat turkeys. The production lines run so fast that birds are sometimes still alive as blades cut them, alive as they are dunked in scalding water.