"Wild" Turkey Invasion

Our barn is situated at the bottom of a mountain called West Mountain in Utah. It’s super sparse as far as plant life and sustenance for animals. It’s basically a barren, rocky, huge hill. There isn’t much wildlife at all. Mostly spiders and snakes.

There’s also these little asshats.

Yes, those are turkeys. Yes, they are walking around my barn aisle, in and out of the horse’s pens. No, turkeys are not native to our area.

My neighbor, who lives about a half mile away, got a bunch of turkeys and chickens to raise. He soon realized he didn’t want to take care of turkeys. So he decided to set them loose on the mountain.

Cue turkey mating season. Cue a handful of DOMESTIC turkeys growing into dozens and dozens of wild turkeys, roaming from house to house begging for food because they can’t survive on the occasional weed or you know, rocks.

They poop on everything in sight. Have you ever seen turkey poop? It is NASTY.

“Why don’t you try shooting them?” You say. Oh, we have had a large numbers of hunters bring the turkey population down, year after year. We even called the Fish and Game to make sure we could legally shoot them any time of the year, and we got the green light. But they never fail to repopulate. We take out an entire flock only to have another come out of nowhere.

Lots of people love the turkeys. They look cool and make people around here feel like they really live in the country. I guess I have to admit they are desensitizing the horses to wild birds?? I can’t handle the poop though, guys. I really can’t.

Anyone feel like shooting some turkeys?

In the meantime, enjoy this video of my horses completely unfazed by the alarm these dipsticks are sounding due to my presence. I LIVE HERE!!!!

Also, please keep in mind that these are the same horses that literally spook at my DOG. Or, you know, someone taking their jacket off too loudly.