Festival tradition no longer flies with Yellville Chamber

Board: Local businesses not served by Turkey Trot airdropping of live birds

The longtime sponsor of a northern Arkansas festival that included dropping live turkeys from a low-flying airplane to crowds below said Friday it would no longer organize or promote the annual gathering.

Yellville Chamber of Commerce board member Lesley Edmonds said protests about the dropping of the birds from an airplane had continued since the 72nd Annual Turkey Trot last October.

“For many years, we have enjoyed the days of a family-friendly festival that served as a homecoming; an occasion every fall to gather and enjoy a parade, live music, crafts, festival food, and camaraderie,” the board said in a statement posted Friday on its Facebook page. “We feel we can no longer deliver the same experience.”

Edmonds said she didn’t know whether other organizers might come forward.

The tradition of a “Phantom Pilot” dropping live birds to crowds below began 50 years ago, but protests mounted in recent years.

“Our goal is to help our local businesses grow and the festival has been more detrimental to them than prosperous,” the board’s statement said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has investigated but said the pilot was not running afoul of aviation rules.

Regardless of whether any laws were broken, animal-welfare activists wanted the turkey drops to end.

“We hope to speak to people involved with the event to try to find a way to promote businesses in the community some other way,” said Gene Baur, president of Farm Sanctuary, a group that has said it has taken in four birds that survived last year’s airdrop. “Dropping birds out of an airplane is unacceptable and outside the norms of society.”

Arkansas is one of the nation’s top turkey-producing states and the festival, which is held six weekends before Thanksgiving, has drawn thousands.

Early on, live birds were dropped from the courthouse roof, but at least 50 years ago the birds were taken aloft in an airplane. After animal-welfare advocates offered a $5,000 reward for the pilot’s arrest, flights stopped for a time before resuming in 2015.

While the turkeys usually spread their wings and glide to a landing, some are apparently confused and try to flap their wings. Instead of floating, they fall. Out of a dozen turkeys that were dropped during the 2016 festival, two reportedly died on impact.

Wild turkeys can fly at speeds up to 55 mph, but they usually fly from treetop to treetop at altitudes of less than 100 feet.

During the turkey drop, the airplane is at an altitude of at least 500 feet.

“Our goal is to help our local businesses grow and the festival has been more detrimental to them than prosperous.”

— Yellville Chamber of Commerce board statement