Story Archive

A Dangerous Game

“They just came up and circled around us,” said Avri Justice. “They’re mean and really aggressive,” adds Katie Justice. “We’ve had bears, all kinds of wildlife, deer all the time,” she said, “but turkeys are not anything I ever could’ve imagined that we would have a problem with.” And yet some of the turkeys in Longwood, Fla., are so menacing, Kristen Haynes says it is “scary to let our kids play in the front yard because we don’t know if the turkeys are going to be there.” There are “incidents” almost daily, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the birds don’t qualify as “nuisance wildlife.” As a game species, they can’t be “taken” until March, when hunting season arrives — and then only with hunting licenses. (AC/WFTV Orlando, WKMG Orlando) ...What turkey decided that?