
Keith Lusher   02.26.26
Conservation officers with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are investigating what they describe because the intentional killing of a number of wild turkeys alongside a roadway in northwest Minnesota.
The incident occurred Feb. 20 close to a hundred and tenth Avenue NW outdoors Thief River Falls. In keeping with the DNR’s weekly enforcement report, a number of birds have been discovered lifeless in what officers consider was a deliberate act slightly than an unintended car collision. Conservation officers are asking for suggestions from the general public as they work to establish these accountable.
Whereas car collisions with turkeys aren’t unusual in rural areas, particularly in late winter when birds group up alongside plowed roads, officers indicated this case appeared totally different. The positioning of the birds and the scene proof led them to categorise the incident as malicious.
No prices have been filed as of this week.

For a lot of hunters, the plain query is whether or not the state of affairs would have been authorized if the people had stopped, tagged the birds, and brought them house.
Underneath Minnesota law, wild turkeys might solely be harvested throughout established looking seasons and with the suitable license and tag. Taking pictures from a car, deliberately operating over wildlife, or taking sport outdoors of the authorized season are all violations. Even when the birds have been struck by accident, possession just isn’t robotically authorized.
Salvaging massive sport like deer sometimes requires notifying authorities and acquiring a possession allow. Turkeys don’t fall underneath a broad roadkill salvage provision in the identical approach, and taking them with out correct authorization might nonetheless end in citations.

In brief, even when somebody had loaded the birds into the truck, it will not have made the state of affairs lawful if the act itself was intentional or outdoors of season.
Anybody with details about the incident is inspired to contact the DNR’s Flip In Poachers hotline at 1-800-652-9093.
Suggestions will be reported anonymously, and knowledge resulting in prices might qualify for a reward.
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