At least that's how an NBC affiliate has described it.
A group of wild turkeys is wreaking havoc in a Cherry Hill, N.J. neighborhood. The large birds attacked a mother and child Thursday afternoon. NBC Philadelphia photojournalist Bruce Ryan had to step in and help scare the turkeys away.Journalists don't typically insert themselves into a situation; they merely record it. So the turkeys must have been on the verge of pecking the child's eyes out. Wow -- Ryan's one courageous man. See for yourself.
Actually the turkeys hadn't even touched the boy or his mother when Ryan said, "Now I got 'em attacking a kid. They're attacking a kid right now. [...] I'm gonna go help 'em."
The mother was smiling and taking her sweet time to remove herself and her son from the situation. Off camera we can hear screams, but judging from Ryan's response beforehand, I'd bet he and the woman were being a bit dramatic.
These birds were likely scared, removed from wherever they had been living. If they actually did attack anyone, I'd like to think it was due to anger that had been building in the species for more than 200 years.
This November please spare a turkey his life. Have a vegetarian (or vegan) Thanksgiving.
(Video courtesy of nbcphiladelphia.com.)
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3 comments:
I'm not sure if I was supposed to, but I found this video very funny. Perhaps it was the prolonged and pronounced screaming off screen while we watched harmless turkeys stand around. I half expected the camera to pan right to show turkeys feasting on the woman and her son. Or a spray of blood to fill the road as her screams ceased. Or maybe I'm just a sick bastard with a gross sense of humour.
Johnson, if one ignores the larger context of how humans are so afraid of other animals (and thus oftentimes resort to killing them), then, yeah, the video is very funny.
Hitchcock thought off-screen murder was more terrifying than on-screen, so he probably would have dug this video. And then, of course, there's the whole "The Birds" angle.
(In case anyone is wondering, neither the mother nor the son was hurt.)
It is pretty ridiculous to be afraid of turkeys, but I'm not really sure if this is a "humans fear other animals" thing so much as it is a "creating a news story where there isn't one" thing. The moment the guys says, "They're attacking" for example, is hilarious because, as you've noted, they're doing nothing remotely threatening.
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