Eye Pecking aside...

[onthespot]

NO WAY would I bring obviously sick birds to my place! They need to be butchered, like deerman says, for a number of reasons. There is not one good reason to keep those birds suffering from incurabe diseases and horrible bumblefoot. several showed with eyes completely blocked wiith exudate, and sinuses drainging... Taking those birds and sending them to mix with flocks all accross the country would compound the suffering and loss a thousand fold. Someone needs to stop this "rescue" in its tracks and switch gears to "harvest and salvage". I hate to sound so heartless, but a LOT of flocks will become infected with lord knows what, and many more birds will suffer and die as a result, not to mention the financial and emotional devastation to the unfortunate good hearted people who take them in.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

To a point I agree with you. Trust me, I have zero problem with turkeys being killed. But if they don't cull these guys, and they are sent out, well there will be some very funny threads about my feeding a few turkeys. Just my personal decision.

Will they eventually die anyway? Yes. But until then, they can have a life. If you do not wish to do anything, don't. I'm not forcing anyone to endanger their flocks. Only my own. My coop is way back on the Other side of the pasture, I've not used it in a year or more, so I think they'd be fine there. And that's IF they are released. Nothing has been decided yet as far as I know.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

Like my chicken house culls, I can about guarantee you that those turkeys have been vaccinated for every poultry disease known to man.

Did my chicken house culls live short lives? Yes, most passed from heart attacks within a year. Did they have good lives? Again, yes.

 

[waterfowlrescue]

There is a lot of misinformation going around here so allow me to clear some things up. I am speaking in general about seizures, raids etc. This is not specific to the recent turkey case. Its in response to information being presented here about our rescues practices that are incorrect.

Normally when there is a criminal investigation and animals are seized they have to be housed somewhere. This is generally where a rescue steps in. At that point they are only allowed to care for them they don't have ownership. In some cases owners will surrender them early because they want to negotiate for reductions in charges. This helps law enforcement because they bear the burden
of paying for care until such time ownership can be released to someone else. If animals are being held and you feel they need to be euthanized you must get permission to do so. We don't get to make those decisions unless animals are owned by us, in most cases they are not.

I have had cases where the judge makes a preliminary ruling to release animals if the evidence calls for. If they don't and the people fight the charges then you may be stuck caring for animals for weeks, months or years. If a case has a large number of animals and a rescue can't hold them they sometimes need people to help them foster. Sometimes the court doesn't allow fostering off site. It just depends

These kinds of events don't happen without many "experts" having their hands in the cookie jar. Usually if your asked to participate its because you have some experience in the field. I don't think anyone who emailed me with all the "answers" had a clue about my intentions, my experience or my background or even who the players were than were already involved. I know people think their inquiring minds need to know everything but some things can not be made public during criminal investigations.

No member of the public would ever be given a sick animal from us and we have never "spread disease around the country" all of our birds are quarantined, healthy and tested for disease before they cross states lines. This would be strictly monitored in a high profile criminal case as with every other detail. I wish I could say food production animals were disease free but they don't test for many ailments these birds carry and even when obvious they don't pull them because they don't want to loose money. Do you feel good about eating a bird a few days away from dying of asper, how about sever upper respiratory disease? Your already eating pus and feces, lets throw some mucous in too! Maybe that's one of the colonel secret spices, yum yum. If your living under the misconception that this isn't the case please feel free to email me and I will fill you in on my many experiences. Despite another incorrect assumption this is far from my first rodeo.

No one said birds would go straight to fosters. No one told anyone specifically they would get anything at any time. All we did was ask to collect a list of people who were willing to help so we could have it ready in the event it was needed. Nothing else is fact.

Its not the mission of a rescue to provide animals for anyone to kill. It completely defeats the purpose of taking an animal out of a bad situation just to put them into a bad situation. To an animal having your throat cut constitutes a bad situation. Not everyone supports efforts of rescue and its a free country you have the right to your own opinions and we have the right to run our operation in a manner that gives us a clear conscience. When I look into the mirror its my face I see its not replaced with your conscience or someone else values. I have to do things the way I know is right. When you put 14 hours a day, 7 days a week and all your money into your own rescue please feel free to put 100s more of your own hours and dollars into an animal and then eat it. As I said its a free country.

I commend people who raise their own food because you aren't contributing to cruelty or eating who knows what disease, chemicals or hormones. I couldn't do it but I would rather see that than see what was in the video they played about things that happen at these factory farms. Most animals raised for food by individuals have a semblance of a natural or normal life. This is not always the case for rescued animals. If you have ever driven by a turkey barn and seen one looking out. They stare out the window longing to know what the sunshine and fresh air feel like. Seeing that you'd know these turkeys have never had any normal life, natural behaviors or happiness. If i had the chance to take one outside, if only to let him know what its like to breath air that doesn't make you choke and cough, it would be worth it.

It's not the goal of any rescue I know to keep animals alive just so they can watch them be in pain or suffer. We care greatly about quality of life and don't send any animals out who won't have one. To state we would do otherwise means you just don't know anything about our practices. A difficult part of rescuing is sometimes just putting an end to suffering. Its not the outcome we want but its part of the job.

If you have questions email us. We are happy to talk about what we do when someone is polite and sincere. We truly appreciate all those who have expressed genuine concern and caring for the animals. I am thankful for some of the really great supportive people I have met this week.

 

[Imp]

Thank you Em for starting this thread. I too wish I could help, but alas I am probably too far away. Let me know. You know where to find me.

And a resounding thanks to you waterfowlrescue, for the enlightened post clarifying the role of a rescue. I was educated and sincerely wish you the best, in a difficult situation.

Imp

 

[deerman]

Waterfowl ...nice to see people trying to help....but please do your homework on the breed....IMO its cruel to see this type of turkey kelp so long that they cant even walk or roost like a normal turkey. .thanks for your post. Like you said some times you ha e to do the hard thing. In this case putting them down would be the best for this breed.

 

[Orpingtons4U]

I would get them but 1: we don't have a coop to put them in 2: I am Scared of them 3: my mom would kill me if i had got more birds

 

[easttxchick]

While I understood that these turkeys, were in fact, being raised for consumption, my only thought was that if I could give just a couple of them a chance to live(for whatever length of time) in a safe, cruelty-free environment with plenty of room to just be turkeys and to know kindness, bugs, sunshine and grass, it would be worth it. If that time was a week or a few months, I KNOW in my heart that they would have been happier here with me than stuck in an overcrowded, unsanitary environment only to have their bones broken and God knows what else done to them by "people"(and I use that term loosely) that are the only human contact they have ever known.
CWR was VERY honest and up front with me when I offered to take a few of these turkeys. All they did was offer to take in these poor creatures that had suffered enough to try to give them a moment of love, care and the chance to be what they are, beautiful, social, trusting and loving animals.
Sorry, Em, but this particular story got to me so deeply that I have decided that I will no longer be giving a dime of my money to these kinds of places. Will it make a difference? It will to me.
I'm just glad that chocolate doesn't have a heartbeat!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:

 

[EmtheFishLady]

I don't know about the trusting or loving part...

In any case, that was my whole point. They don't know ANYTHING for sure of them yet. I think CWR is an excellent rescue, and want to help where and if I can. I live too far to do anything regularly, but keep an eye out for their emails in case it is something I can help with.