Loudoun County's Thanksgiving Turkey Massacre

Most turkey stories lack happy endings.  This is especially true around Thanksgiving -- even moreso if you're a feathered future sandwich.

For the beloved Route 7 gobbler, a Cinderella story wasn't to be.

Last month, we reported on a wild turkey chase in Landsdowne, Va.  There, a turkey was repeatedly running on to Route 7, chasing after cars and generally being a pain in the neck.

Animal Control officers repeatedly tried to corral the free-range flier with little luck.  The best they could manage was to lure it to nearby fields, safe from traffic.

But it came back.

And back.

And back again.

So about a week later, the Loudoun County Sheriff's office put the gobbler down.  The timing of the massacre -- a week before turkey day -- was purely coincidental.

Spokesman Kraig Troxell told the Loudoun Times, "We were out sometimes two and three times a day to try to get the turkey away from the road and back into the woods, but it continued to be attracted to the roadway and was nearly causing some accidents."

So BLAM BLAM BLAM and the turkey terror ends. Loudoun County's streets are safe once again.

As one commenter to the Loudoun Times story put it, "Poor turkey, this all could have been avoided if animal control was capable of catching anything other than lunch at Giovani's."