SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California wildlife authorities and the U.S. Postal Service are investigating reports that a mail carrier beat a wild turkey to death in Sacramento County.
The alleged incident happened Monday near Morse Avenue and Bonita Drive, in the Creekside residential neighborhood in Arden Arcade.
Witnesses wrote in posts on the social media app Nextdoor that a mail carrier, after being accosted by a particularly aggressive turkey, retrieved a pole or stick from his vehicle and used it to fatally beat the bird.
"We are currently launching a thorough investigation of the incident," Meiko Patton, a local U.S. Postal Service spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. "Our employees have had several altercations with aggressive turkeys in the area, including a recent attack on a letter carrier. We have been working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to mitigate the issue.
"However, this allegation is alarming, and if true, (is) inexcusable and do not reflect the efforts of our more than 650,000 employees who faithfully serve and deliver for America every day."
Capt. Patrick Foy, a local spokesman with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said his department first received reports of turkey aggression from the Postal Service in October, in the same neighborhood as this week's deadly incident.
"The U.S. Postal Service contacted us and said, 'We are having a huge problem with extremely aggressive turkeys that are actually attacking mail carriers in this one particular neighborhood,'" Foy said in a Thursday interview.
"When I say 'attacked,' it is physical contact. They're jumping on 'em."
Foy said his department sent a wildlife officer out to Morse Avenue, several blocks south of Marconi Avenue, in October, who didn't observe that level of aggressive behavior.
But then they sent in a wildlife biologist.
The biologist "observed four turkeys actively, aggressively go after a mail carrier when he got out of his mail truck," Foy said.
"They surrounded him."
Foy said Fish and Wildlife attempted to capture some of the aggressive turkeys but were unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Foy said, postal carriers started to defend themselves by swinging their mail bags at turkeys, kicking at them or using pepper spray.
None of those tactics seemed to work.
Things "cooled off a bit" for a few months, until this week, when Foy said his department received the report that a mail carrier "had used a club to defend himself from a turkey and killed it."
"Half of the neighborhood was infuriated that a mailman killed a turkey," Foy said, referring to posts on Nextdoor and other social media platforms. "The other half are infuriated that somebody won't come out and get rid of all the turkeys."
Fish and Wildlife officials are investigating the incident to see if the mail carrier committed any crimes, though Foy, who works in the department's law enforcement division, declined to specify what sort of charges the postal worker might potentially face if the killing is deemed unjustified.
Foy said the department has not yet uncovered any photos or video from the incident, only witness statements. He asked anyone who may have captured the confrontation on camera to contact the department.
A neighbor recovered the turkey carcass and kept it until Wednesday, Foy said, when a wildlife official retrieved it. That delay has disrupted the investigation some, because the turkey's carcass can't be as reliably used for evidence after being in a resident's possession for two days.
Foy, who said he happened to be in the area when wildlife officials picked it up, swung by to see the turkey for himself.
"I've been with the department for 25 years, and I have a little bit of experience with turkeys," he said. "It was the biggest turkey I've ever seen."
Foy called turkey attacks on humans "uncommon, but not unheard of."
Turkeys act more brazen when they've lost their fear of humans, which happens when residents feed them — either directly or with bird feeders on their property.
Foy said one of his lieutenants found evidence this week that neighbors in the area have been "feeding the turkeys huge amounts of food," which he said is "actively contributing to this problem."
Feeding them is also against the law, he said.
The lieutenant saw turkeys eating "cracked corn, sunflower seeds and other things" that had been left out for them on front lawns near Morse and Bonita.
When a turkey attacks, it uses spurs on the back of its legs. It pecks.
Turkeys, much like chickens, are "accustomed to fighting, getting injured and fighting through it," Foy said. Usually, though, they're fighting other turkeys.
The wildlife captain's biggest concern is that an aggressive turkey that has lost its fear of humans could seriously hurt or even kill an elderly resident in the neighborhood.
Wildlife officials will continue to monitor the aggressive behavior in Arden Arcade, but are urging the neighborhood to stop feeding the birds.
The presence of aggressive turkeys in the Sacramento area is well-documented. Almost exactly a year earlier, one smashed into the window of an oral surgeon's office in Fair Oaks, clawing up dentist chairs and cabinets.
The alleged incident isn't the first time a Sacramento-area mail carrier has been accused of killing a turkey. In March 2016, residents of a Fair Oaks cul-de-sac said they witnessed a mailman club and stab a wild turkey to death with a wooden stick, though in that instance, the residents said the attack appeared to be unprovoked.
The Postal Service initiated an investigation into the 2016 incident as well, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time, but those claims were never formally substantiated.
The wild birds may tend to be more aggressive around March, in part because it's around the start of their mating season.
