2 Crossing Country to Safehouse : Sanctuary Awaits Turkeys

A pair of turkeys are to ride in the back seat of a Chevy van this week on a 2,700-mile drive from Delaware to Camarillo.

Animal-rights activists trying to give the birds something to be thankful for--and attract attention to their cause--will be in the front seat.

A state veterinarian said he doubts the turkeys will survive the drive.

Members of Farm Sanctuary, a Delaware-based pro-animal group, Monday began delivering 10 live turkeys to families across the country that have “adopted” the birds to save them from the ovens of Thanksgiving.

No Longer Eats Turkey

Two are to go to Camarillo resident Linda Callahan. She said she used to eat turkey but now supports Farm Sanctuary because the birds are often slaughtered inhumanely.

California agriculture officials said the birds will not simply be waved into the state. A law designed to prevent disease in fowl requires a health certificate or a written promise to quarantine them and get them a checkup.

“Birds coming into the state for immediate slaughter are exempted, but it sounds like these birds don’t fall into that category,” said Dr. Dennis Thompson, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento.

George West, the state’s chief bird veterinarian, said Callahan’s turkeys might expire of natural causes before reaching the state line.

“Those people are being incredibly cruel to the birds,” West said by phone from Davis. “I see little likelihood of a happy outcome to this.”

He said turkeys are more delicate than, say, children on a vacation, and are likely to die of the stress of being bounced around in a van winding through the Rocky Mountains.

“That’s a hell of a trip,” West said. “They’re abusing the animals unforgivably. They’re probably violating federal laws on abuse to animals. In some of the other states they’ll be driving through, those people could be imprisoned. Some states are extremely paranoid about diseases.”

If they do make it, the Farm Sanctuary people are supposed to inform officials of their place of origin and destination and to discuss quarantine procedures.

West said state inspectors will arrest the Farm Sanctuary officials if they catch them sneaking the birds in.

In Delaware, word of California’s border inspection stations caught Farm Sanctuary officials by surprise.

“Are these checkpoints random, or are they like toll booths?” asked Stas Kaczorowski, a Wilmington, Del., co-founder of the group.

‘Coming a Long Way’

“These birds are all healthy,” he said. “We’re coming an awfully long way for something to happen at the end of the trip.”

Kaczorowski started distributing turkeys in Delaware. He said he planned to head west Monday night, stopping at drop-off points in Ohio and Colorado.

Farm Sanctuary acknowledged that the 10-turkey trans-American crusade was largely a publicity stunt. They would not disclose where the turkeys came from. One official in Delaware said an anonymous supporter donated them. Callahan said she understood that they fell off a truck bound for a slaughterhouse.

Kaczorowski said the turkeys will be uncaged and allowed to move freely in the van, which he said is heated and air-conditioned. He said the birds will be watched by Cristy McMickle, a Van Nuys resident who will travel with him.

Callahan said she decided to take the birds after she joined the 8-month-old Farm Sanctuary group last summer.

The group required her to sign a pledge not to eat the turkeys, she said. She said she also had to provide references, including the name of the veterinarian who looks after her cats, dogs, ducks and goose.

“Last year we ate turkey for Thanksgiving,” Callahan said. “This year we’ll probably go to a buffet where we have a choice of vegetables.”

She said her husband, lawyer David Patrick Callahan, agreed to the turkey acquisition after the two of them tried to assist a dog that had been hit by a car two months ago.