Man With Slingshot Kills Turkey That Terrorized Town

The mayor of a small town in Quebec says a resident who used a slingshot to take down a rogue turkey may not have been playing by the rules—but he got results. The wild turkey had been terrorizing Louiseville for days and was seen in a Facebook video chasing a man down a street after the man tried to scare it away from the entrance to his seniors residence, the CBC reports. Mayor Yvon Deshaies said he talked to a resident he knew was a good shot about dealing with the turkey, even though it's not turkey hunting season and slingshots aren't an approved weapon. The mayor said the hunter brought him the claws and took the bird home to cook and eat.

"A man with a sling—like in the time of David and Goliath, he's very good with it—he hit the wild turkey with two metal stones in the head and he fell," the mayor told the Montreal Gazette after the turkey was killed Thursday. "He didn't suffer at all." Deshaies said he would have preferred it if wildlife officials had dealt with the turkey, but their only response to his request was to say turkeys aren't dangerous. The mayor said that people were being attacked by birds with "claws like razor blades" and that he had to do something. "When it's attacking citizens, or children, a person in a wheelchair, it doesn't matter—that's not normal," said Deshaies. "I defend my citizens." He said he thinks the turkey may have been "mentally unstable."