A Strange Disappearance

I enjoy following a Facebook page called Western Howard County Shares. It gives me a taste of life “way out West”, if you will. Earlier this month I smiled when I saw this post:

Wild turkey strutting and chasing cars down Daisy Rd this afternoon.

It was followed by comments like:

That was the same one that stoped my car today. It kept blocking us from going by. Kids were cracking up.

I think he is the neighborhood watch turkey.

We love our neighborhood turkey!

Yeah, that thing tried to square off with my car and I literally had to push him off the road!

He was doing a great job enforcing the STOP sign the other day. I finally had to get out of the car to move him away from the front bumper. He better check his calendar!

I was wondering how long it would take for him to appear on Facebook lol.

Kinda hoping he stayed off FB he might be tempting to a unethical hunter.

And then, bad news:

On the 17th I shared a post/photo of a wild turkey walking along Daisy Road.  Turns out she/he “lived” in the area and had become a sort of a mascot.  I just read an update  to the post detailing how 2 men were seen catching the turkey, putting her/him in their trunk and driving off.  

I am so sorry if the post on WHC Shares had anything to do with the @#$$ who needed to stroke their egos and treat an animal like this.

I will no longer share photos of non-domesticated WHC animals that could even remotely inspire similar cowardice and cruelty.    

We really try to keep this a positive, informative and fun social media platform for the WHC community...more importantly we try to post responsibly and with sensitivity.    Clearly we need to be sensitive to the fact that there are cruel-to-animals, opportunistic jackasses out there.

This is so sad. Who would do such a thing? Apparently a witness saw the men run the turkey over first, before absconding with it. Neighbors are hoping that someone can help to bring these two to justice. Here’s how:

Probably too late for this turkey, but if someone could provide enough description to DNR for them to ID the culprits they could be in a world of trouble.  Wild turkey fall season was 10/28-11/04/2017.  By taking a wild turkey out of season they would pay a hefty fine and possibly more as sentences for hunting are stiffer in many cases than other crimes.  Real hunters don't take game that acts out of character for the species, thinking it may be sick, or as in this case, habituated to humans.  Let alone hunt out of season.  Please folks, if you saw anything, contact  MD DNR.

So there you have it. This may very well be a case of internet fame gone wrong. Or it may be a hit and run - - but then why would you take the victim with you? I’m mightily suspicious about their intent, given the time of year.

A tip of the hat to Western Howard Shares for telling the stories that people like me in Oakland Mills would never know otherwise.