The Mid-Marion County Rotary Club has decided to sponsor the annual Turkey Trot event this year after the Yellville Area Chamber of Commerce announced earlier in April it will no longer sponsor the festival.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports the Rotary Club voted 16 to 6 on Monday to take over sponsorship, but only if no live turkeys are on the premises or dropped from airplanes, says Stan Duffy, president elect of the Rotary Club.
The festival gained national attention last year as news organizations from coast to coast reported, what would eventually become, a controversial tradition of throwing turkeys from a low flying plane.
For about 50 years, “phantom pilots” have flown airplanes by the festival and released live turkeys. Most of the birds spread their wings and glide to the ground, but some of them don’t open their wings and die on impact. The practice has incensed animal-welfare activists.
Duffy says if a pilot flies by Turkey Trot this fall and drops turkeys from the sky, that will be the end of the festival.
Meanwhile, a Nevada congresswoman says she wants her colleagues to ban the dropping of live turkeys.
Democratic Representative Dina Titus told the House Rules Committee on Tuesday while the scene is reminiscent of a 1970s sitcom, maiming animals at the Yellville Turkey Trot is serious business.
Titus’ amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration rules package was not sent to the House floor, and the congresswoman told The Associated Press on Wednesday she intends to raise the issue in a separate bill.
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