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Gobble it up: ‘Pardoned’ tom needs a name

November 24th, 2009, 5:49 pm · 35 Comments · posted by Samantha Gowen, Pet Tales editor

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As a pair of pardoned turkeys wing their way from Washington to Disneyland on Thursday, a solitary tom will be pacing his cage at Centennial Farm.

tom-011The brown and white feathered Costa Mesa resident lives a life of relative leisure. From his ample one-room studio cage, he snacks from a bowl of feed while his juicy sidekicks — two Peking ducks and a goose — quack and honk in stereo nearby.

The 1-year-old gobbler, like President Obama’s feathered friends Courage and Carolina, also has been spared the holiday carving knife. The 20-pound bird instead will serve as an educational aide, so to speak, at the farm.

What this turkey really needs, however, is a name. We believe The Register’s readers can do better than “tom,” so for the next 24 hours, we’ll take your suggestions.

Leave your name suggestion in the comment field below. Be nice! We reserve the right to chop your nasty, crude or inappropriate names like an ill-fated turkey neck.

On Thanksgiving Day we’ll vote on three to four turkey-worthy names chosen by yours truly. Don’t forget to check back while you snack on a wing or breast slathered in gravy. (For the record, the pets editor eats neither feathered nor furred creatures.)

The person who submits the winning name gets braggin’ rights … and maybe some tasty leftovers.

Watch a preview of the White House turkey pardon.

Turkey tidbits:tom-031

  • The tom at Centennial Farm is caged to prevent him from flying away. While large domesticated turkeys are generally unable to fly, smaller, lighter domesticated turkeys known as heritage turkeys and wild turkeys can fly.
  • The name given to a group of turkeys is a rafter, although they are sometimes incorrectly referred to as a gobble or flock.
  • Turkeys have a distinctive fleshy wattle that hangs from the underside of the beak, and a fleshy protuberance that hangs from the top of its beak called a snood.
  • The average lifespan for a domesticated turkey is 10 years.
  • Despite the name, turkeys have no direct relation to the country of Turkey and are native to North America.
  • Hens are harvested (slaughtered) at about 14 weeks and toms at about 18 weeks.

Read more about turkeys and controversy in Orange County:

Group protests turkeys at Disneyland

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Posted in: Animals • Government • Pets • Wacky news • • • • • • • •
 
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