INOLA, Okla. — There’s been an uproar of comments about the Inola Police Department after the department shot some turkeys it said were damaging people’s property around town.
2 News Oklahoma’s Douglas Braff went to Inola police to get answers.
Inola had some feathered friends visit recently; that was until police said they started ruffling a few feathers.
“We started getting these phone calls about turkeys being on top of cars, being on top of houses, roosting and whatnot,” Inola Police Chief Cliff Stevens told 2 News. “The turkeys started scratching at a vehicle and scratched it up pretty good, causing some significant damage to some vehicles.”
Stevens told us their “only option” ultimately was to put those turkeys down. But he said they didn’t want to kill the turkeys.
“We tried to give it plenty of time for them to move on,” he said. “But, as the game warden said, ‘With your citizens feeding them and keeping 'em around town, they're gonna stay.’”
This happened after Stevens said he consulted local wildlife experts on what to do.
“They said that it would be dangerous trying to catch these birds,” he explained. “We don't have the funds or needs to go and get the proper equipment for our officers to stay safe like this. So, I made decision that this would be the best decision to do.”
A game warden with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation reportedly deemed the turkeys not to be wild-born after signs of previous captivity. Because they were not considered “wildlife,” he allegedly said Inola police could kill the birds.
Stevens says he had an officer round up and shoot the turkeys in a safe location.
Outcry on Facebook has been intense after authorities announced the killing on Thursday.
“What I would like to the public to know that we did not want to do this,” Stevens emphasized. “We try to wait as long as possible to get these birds outta here. But with the complaints and everything we were getting, it was starting to get to be every single day where we're getting these complaints.”
Stevens told us they processed the turkey meat and donated it to needy individuals in the area.
He said they shot five turkeys with a sixth one still at large.
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