Turkeys Decide This Thanksgiving Thing Is Not For Them, Escape From Moving Truck

Though American across the world will be giving thanks for the turkey on their table this Thanksgiving, let’s all stop for a moment to honor two birds that won’t be the starring event this year: a pair of gobblers escaped from a truck on its way to the slaughterhouse in Wisconsin, thus thwarting their holiday fate.

Two turkeys will live to see another Thanksgiving after falling off the back of a truck over the weekend in Wisconsin, reports the Wausau Daily Herald, which was likely taking them to their final, deadly destination.

Luckily for the daring duo, the truck driver likely didn’t notice they’d bounced out of the vehicle, giving them the chance they needed to flee. Police officers called to the scene found the fowl sitting under a tree near the highway. The birds “made a break for it” when the cops showed up, so volunteers from a wildlife rehab operation were called in to assist.

The volunteers helped police wrangle the birds back into a crate and got them covered with a blanket to settle their nerves after the ordeal. Though police can’t confirm if the birds were on their way to the slaughterhouse, the turkeys appeared to be domesticated and at the right age for slaughter.

As it turns out, the female hen and young male are blue slate turkeys, a heritage breed listed as critically endangered by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Both birds are recovering from leg injuries they suffered in the crate crash, and are hanging out at a wildlife rehabilitation center.

“Falling off a truck on the way to market has (pardon) written all over it,” the center’s director told the Herald. “An accident that could have killed them (both actually) turned out to be the luckiest thing that could have happened to them.”

She’s planning to give them a home on the center’s property once they’ve recovered from their fall.

Escaped turkeys saved from Thanksgiving meal [Wausau Daily Herald]