Turkeys ruining NYC”s property

Say "wild" and "New York City," and few might fill in these blanks: a flock of feral turkeys causing a flap in a city that defines urbanity.

Yet a population of roving turkeys on Staten Island has become a mess-making, traffic-stopping scourge to some residents, an impromptu natural attraction to others and a fraught project for government officials.

Since dozens of the turkeys were rounded up and killed this summer, the birds' future has become a topic as heated as a Thanksgiving meat thermometer.

"We don't want to kill them. We just want them to leave us alone," says Barbara Laing, who watched as at least 50 turkeys converged outside her house around sundown one recent evening with a chorus of honks — their own and those of drivers futilely trying to shoo them out of traffic.

The turkeys milled on the grass, flew up like cartoon ghosts into a large maple tree, and settled in for the night.

It's a sight that charms onlookers and sometimes residents, when the turkeys aren't fouling yards with droppings, devouring gardens, waking up residents with raucous pre-dawn mating sessions, and utterly disregarding dogs and other supposed deterrents.

"They really are a beautiful bird ... but they ruined our property," says Laing's sister and next-door neighbor, Mary Jane Froese.

After decades of effort to halt the decline of the symbolically American birds, experts say the nation's wild turkey population has rebounded from about 300,000 in the early 1950s to an estimated 7 million now.

The forest-dwelling gobbler has adapted to settings as populated as lower Manhattan, where a turkey nicknamed Zelda hangs out. They've been accused of attacking residents in Brookline, Mass., and menacing schoolchildren in Glendale, Wis.

Turkey tensions have come to a big-city head on Staten Island, where the birds started congregating at a state psychiatric hospital and attracting notice a decade or so ago.

Now, nearly everyone on the island seems to have a turkey story, not to mention an opinion.

Turkey gripes have led to at least one arrest ㅡ of a resident who set off fireworks to try to disperse them from his block in 2007 ㅡ and schemes such as coating turkey eggs with vegetable oil in hopes of preventing embryos from developing (It didn't work).

야생 칠면조 떼가 마을을 습격했다. 도로와 주택가를 점령한 칠면조들은 진풍경을 연출하고 있다.

21일(현지시간) 허핑턴 포스트 등 외신은 최근 뉴욕이 칠면조의 습격을 받았다고 보도했다.
미국 칠면조의 습격사건이 발생한 곳은 뉴욕 스테이튼 아일랜드 지역이다. 야생 칠면조 수십 마리는 도로를 점령하고 주택가를 혼란스럽게 만들었다. 밤낮없이 울어내고, 배설물을 배출해 주민들의 피해가 이어지고 있다.

미국 칠면조의 습격 소식에 네티즌들은 “미국 칠면조의 습격, 날벼락이네”, “미국 칠면조의 습격, 야생 칠면조가 겁도 없이 도시로 내려오다니”, “미국 칠면조의 습격, 오늘 메뉴는 칠면조 구이?” 등의 반응을 보였다.

출처 : 코리아타임즈