Turkey drop for real?

[Valitudinarius Rex]

I found this item from 1996 in which it is claimed that a town in Texas traditionally drops live tagged guinea fowl out of a low-flying plane for residents to catch.


The assumption is that the fowl will fly a short-but-exciting distance in the process. Has this been proven/debunked?

I always thought that the "Turkeys Away" episode of "WKRP in Cincinatti" would have dissuaded most people from trying this.

I searched the archives in case this has already been discussed....can't believe it hasn't....maybe I'm using the wrong parameters.

[AnglRdr]

Isn't that how folks like Dick Cheney hunt?

[CenTex]

I don't know if they still do it, but the town of Quitaque (pronounced Kitty-quay) did a guinea drop as part of the "National Trails Day" festival. I don't know if they still do the guinea drop or not.

I found this article, but it is from 10 years ago. I was living in Lubbock when this came up so I remembered some of the details.

[Ali Infree]

Back when WKRP was on, I wasn't paying much attention to TV, but didn't they drop frozen turkeys out of the traffic helicopter?
Wasn't that the thing that made it funny

Ali "the lost years" Infree

[Dr. Dave]

Originally Posted by Ali Infree

Back when WKRP was on, I wasn't paying much attention to TV, but didn't they drop frozen turkeys out of the traffic helicopter?
Wasn't that the thing that made it funny

Ali "the lost years" Infree

No, the frozen turkeys was another UL/joke. WKRP was live turkeys, but from a not so low flying plane. ("They're hitting the ground like bags of wet cement!") The closing line was Mr. C. looking dishelveld (scratched?) saying "With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Perhaps the best TV momment ever.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Ali Infree

Back when WKRP was on, I wasn't paying much attention to TV, but didn't they drop frozen turkeys out of the traffic helicopter?
Wasn't that the thing that made it funny

Ali "the lost years" Infree

My recollection is that although it weas live turkeys, they wer farm turkeys and there had their wings clipped, so they could not stop themselves from dropping like watermelons. "Oh, the humanity..." OMG, my whole family howled with laughter at that episode; it wasn;t just the idea of the poor turkeys dropping, but the reportage from Les Nessman over the air making the scene so graphic and yet surreal.

[BoKu]

Originally Posted by AnglRdr

Isn't that how folks like Dick Cheney hunt?

Nah, too passive. Not in-your-face enough for Dick.

Wow. I live in Texas and somehow I've managed to never have heard of this. What is the point of it supposed to be?

[CenTex]

Originally Posted by MiddleEye

Wow. I live in Texas and somehow I've managed to never have heard of this. What is the point of it supposed to be?

I think the point was supposed to be that each guinnea had a $100 bill tied to its leg. After being dropped out of the airplane, the guinnea would glide down to the ground and the people would try to catch it, thus catching the $100.

[Namowal]

Apparently this is still done in Arkansas.
This site (mostly about the WKRP episode) says live turkeys were dropped from low flying planes in another Arkansas town, but they stopped in 1989)

[joshxrt22]

I've lived in Texas my whole life, but I've never heard of this tradition

(doesn't neccessarily mean it don't happen, though)

[Cervus]

About a decade ago a local radio station claimed they'd be dropping turkeys out of a plane for a Thanksgiving contest. There was some prize involved for whoever caught a turkey. Of course, they built it up to seem like they'd be throwing live turkeys out of a flying plane, and took great pleasure in getting animal rights activists riled up on air.

The stunt actually involved a DJ tossing frozen Butterball turkeys four feet out the door of a parked plane.

[Lady Neeva]

That's actually pretty dang funny in my opinion. But then, I've got a warped sense of humor.

[katikate]

Not to bring up a dead thread, but I found it amusing the JC is from Yellville, AR, where in fact they do do th turkey drop every year. I can't remember if the turkey's are still alive or not....

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

My recollection is that although it weas live turkeys, they wer farm turkeys and there had their wings clipped, so they could not stop themselves from dropping like watermelons. "Oh, the humanity..." OMG, my whole family howled with laughter at that episode; it wasn;t just the idea of the poor turkeys dropping, but the reportage from Les Nessman over the air making the scene so graphic and yet surreal.

That one's right up there with Chuckles the Clown's funeral on Mary Tyler Moore.

[niner]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

My recollection is that although it weas live turkeys, they wer farm turkeys and there had their wings clipped, so they could not stop themselves from dropping like watermelons. "Oh, the humanity..." OMG, my whole family howled with laughter at that episode; it wasn;t just the idea of the poor turkeys dropping, but the reportage from Les Nessman over the air making the scene so graphic and yet surreal.

While clipping is popular, a fully grown domestic meat turkey probably can't fly even if it's wings are fully intact. They're bred to produce a lot of meat fast, and not for natural survival. In fact, domestic turkeys are technically a symbiont at this point - they can only breed with human intervention.

I have 5 turkeys living in my front yard, in a portable pen. When they were younger they could flap themselves up on top of a 30" high fence with some work. Now that it's close to Thanksgiving, even that is out of their range. They can still flap up a dickens, but it seems to be mostly so they can run faster than gain any height.

Henry