For more than 50 years, something strange — and unspeakably cruel — has happened in the fall each year in Yellville, Arkansas.As part of the annual Yellville Turkey Trot, an anonymous local pilot — known locally as “The Phantom Pilot” —
drops live turkeys from a plane high above a creek near the town square. The largely flightless birds plummet 1,000 feet, terrified, to their deaths.
Disoriented and unable to right themselves, most birds plummet like bricks, fatally crashing onto buildings, cars, and the street.
The Turkey Drop clearly violates Arkansas law (§5-62-103), which states that a person commits the offense of cruelty to animals if he or she knowingly subjects any animal to cruel mistreatment.
Local sheriff Clinton Evans knows that this awful event is planned each year and has received local complaints attempting to stop it in 2017. The local newspaper has reported on the identities of locals who’ve acted as “The Phantom Pilot” in the past. And local prosecutors say they can’t act until the sheriff’s department files a complaint itself to stop the turkey massacre.
Even so, Sheriff Evans has yet to take any real steps to end this awful, needless, and cruel slaughter. If we can apply enough public pressure, we believe that we can convince Sheriff Evans to do the right thing and help stop this abuse.
Please sign our petition urging Sheriff Evans to find “The Phantom Pilot” and end this sadistic ritual once and for all. The pilot is set to fly — and kill — again as soon as Oct. 13, 2017, so please add your name now.
