Parts Man Flooded With Offers to Take His Turkeys Under Wing

The 320 turkeys stranded at Glenn McElroy’s Southland auto-parts salvage yards may have been spared from “The Great American Turkey Hunt,” but they could still end up stuffed and roasted on the Thanksgiving table.

After word of the turkey episode spread Thursday, McElroy was deluged with phone calls offering to take the turkeys off his hands, including officials of homeless shelters and an animal sanctuary. McElroy is leaning toward using them to feed the homeless.

What started as a sales gimmick to lure customers by letting them chase a turkey around the salvage yard and take one home for a quarter, has turned into a logistical nightmare--albeit a public-relations boon for McElroy’s Pick Your Part company.

Animal-control officials from Orange and Los Angeles counties swooped in Wednesday--just two days before the promotion was set to begin--and ordered McElroy to cease and desist. Had he gone ahead with the promotion at his two yards in Wilmington and one each in Anaheim and Sun Valley, he could have faced criminal charges of tormenting animals, they said.

McElroy quickly canned the idea but was left with 320 gobblers delivered last week from a Fresno farm.

Officials with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said they are happy their pleading letters to animal-control agencies paid off. But now they want McElroy to spare the turkeys.

“Clearly, something good can come out of this situation,” said Amy Rhodes, a cruelty caseworker for the group. “We’re hoping that Mr. McElroy will turn what was a silly and cruel idea into something positive by allowing the animals to go to a sanctuary.”

Thursday morning, McElroy took calls from a dozen television and radio stations from as far away as Australia and New York, homeless shelters and even the Farm Sanctuary, a farm-animal rescue and protection organization based near Sacramento.

“There really, truly could be a happy ending for these animals,” said Lorri Bauston, co-founder of Farm Sanctuary.

The shelter received several calls from its members Thursday morning offering to adopt some of McElroy’s turkeys. In a last-ditch effort to save the birds, Bauston called the company late Thursday afternoon and said the group would take all 320.

“They’re very companionable,” Bauston said. “Turkeys love to be stroked just like a cat. They’ll sit on your lap. They follow you around like a big puppy dog. They know their names. They’re really amazing animals.”

McElroy hasn’t decided what to do with the birds, which cost him $5,000 plus trucking, advertising and feed.

He’d like to find an accommodating slaughterhouse and feed some hungry people. As for turning them into pets, he’s not sure it’s a good idea. “I don’t know if you know turkeys, but they don’t make good pets,” said McElroy. “They eat a lot and they poop a lot.”