Armed with nets, police responded to the Aspinwall Hill neighborhood shortly after 6 a.m. after a woman reported that she had been attacked by a turkey. The neighborhood is where turkeys have attacked children on their way to school and forced some mail carriers inside homes on their routes.
Angry turkeys have tried to peck through a storm door window. One neighbor said he has had to fend off the birds with an umbrella during a siege that he labeled “a nightmare.”
The captured turkey was taken to Tufts University veterinary school in Grafton. It had to be euthanized because of a broken wing suffered in the capture, said Alan Borgal, director of law enforcement for the Animal Rescue League of Boston.
Though two of the birds are still at large, wildlife specialists and police hope that removing one of them will cause the others to mellow out, defusing the gang mentality that has existed in the neighborhood.
Chuck Hanegan, a postal worker, said he has been attacked by the trio of aggressive turkeys before, including once last week.
Hanegan said he called police as soon as it happened, but the birds disappeared into a yard. During one attack, he said, he had to take shelter in the home of a woman on his route. Hanegan said he stood behind the glass front door to the woman’s house, but the turkeys were not deterred.
“They were pecking at the woman’s storm door,” he said.
Borgal, of the Animal Rescue League of Boston, said that based on his experience, removing one aggressive turkey from a group can lead to fewer shows of aggression by the remaining birds. He said he encountered a similar case in Wellesley several years ago in which one bird was caught, and the others stopped being aggressive toward people.
Murphy said police are hoping the other turkeys will now be less aggressive. But if not, he said, police would be back to catch them, as well.
(boston.com - Jan 16, 2013)
