Turkey and all the trimming$
The City Council is doling out $65.5 million on favored nonprofits and local programs — including $100,000 to relocate wild turkeys terrorizing Staten Islanders to a farm upstate. Really. “It’s not like when you tell your kids about the dog who went to play at the farm,” Councilman Steve Matteo (R-Staten Island) said.
Matteo allocated $20,000 from his own pot of discretionary money, and at his request Council Speaker Corey Johnson kicked in another $80,000. The money is going to And-Hof Animals, a sanctuary for farm animals in upstate Catskill, whose owner has agreed to come get the birds and bring them to his digs.
The money is coming from the Council’s annual discretionary funding, also known as Schedule C, which is more typically used to help communities do things like giving away turkeys at Thanksgiving. But Staten Island has been searching for a solution to the multiplying birds. They are a fixture in Matteo’s district, particularly near the grounds of Staten Island University Hospital in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood.
‘They are a nuisance. They are a nuisance to senior citizens. They are very aggressive, they are causing traffic problems,” he said. “There are hundreds now and if you go by the hospital you will see hundreds.”
The great turkey trot to upstate comes after the city has also rolled out a nonlethal way to deal with the deer on Staten Island — through vasectomies.