Terrorizing Turkeys Taken for a Ride
While their nerves were rattled, the mother and child were not physically hurt." />
NBC Philadelphia - Bruce Ryan
A group of wild turkeys is wreaking havoc in a Cherry Hill, N.J. neighborhood. The large birds attacked a mother and child Thursday afternoon. NBC Philadelphia photojournalist Bruce Ryan had to step in and help scare the turkeys away.
The turkeys run "afowl" each afternoon near Brookmead Drive. No one knows where the turkeys came from or why they keep coming back.
While their nerves were rattled, the mother and child were not physically hurt.
The days of domination and intimidation ended rather quickly for all but one of the wild turkeys that were getting much to pushy, picking on people of all sizes in Cherry Hill.
"They're really, really fast…like these things are vicious," said one young girl.
And there wasn't a fowl friend left when the bad birds turned a Norman Rockwell moment into a traumatic one for a little boy on Brookmead Drive Thursday.
They charged at the tyke as he was riding his tricycle down the sidewalk. Mom swooped in, grabbed her son and the two ran screaming across the street. It was all caught on tape and that turned out to be a good thing.
After resisting calls and cries by neighbors (since turkeys have rights too!) the township sent animal control officers out first thing Friday morning. They nabbed four of the wild turkeys with nets and planned to come back in the afternoon to find the last of the flock.
The birds are being taken for a ride. They'll be released "into the wild" about 50 miles away in Gloucester County.
Survival of the fittest might be a little more challenging there than life in the 'burbs.
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