Postal workers have long done battle with Dobermans and inclement weather. Now a mail carrier in a small Massachusetts town has a dangerous new foe -- turkeys.Mail delivery in the town of Rockport was recently halted by a gang of 10 turkeys (including two male ringleaders) who have been chasing and trying to peck a letter carrier along his route. For some reason, these fowl fiends have homed in on the postman and are targeting him in particular as he makes his daily rounds.
"Some of the neighbors said their dogs have been attacked, but mostly it's just been our postal truck," said the town's delivery master. "They chase the truck down the street -- two males in particular -- it's just unbelievable."
Following an incident on Jan. 15 where the gobblers chased the mailman, delivery to the area has been stopped. There are schemes on the table to ward off the turkeys with umbrellas, but for now the mail route has been deemed unsafe.
Think animals are out to get us? You may after checking out the gallery below.
Deadly Animal Attacks
In 2004, Orange County, Cal. mountain biker Mark Reynolds was attacked and killed by a 110-pound mountain lion while kneeling over to fix his bike's chain. Later in the same day, the big cat pounced on another biker and had its jaws on her head when other cyclists came to her rescue. The animal was later put down by rangers.
Jason Edwards, National Geographic / Getty Images
There are less than 4,000 of these giant lizards on Komodo, living alongside the 1,200 human residents of the island. Thirty-three years had passed without incident before an 8-year-old boy got too close to a Komodo Dragon in June 2007, shattering the seemingly harmonious coexistence.
Fox Photos / Getty Images
Hippos are not the cute animals many perceive them to be. They are extremely territorial, especially when in rut (a state of sexual excitement). In 1999, a horny hippopotamus mistook a tractor for a female and trampled a Parisian zoo director en route to the seductive machinery.
George Nikitin, San Francisco Zoo / AP
Sometimes an animal's rage only really comes out when it's a bit tipsy. Drunk off villagers' rice beer, a pack of elephants trampled six people in the northeast Indian state of Assam in 2002. "It has been noticed that elephants have developed a taste for rice beer and local liquor and they always look for it when they invade villages," explained an elephant expert after the incident.
Henry Guttmann, Getty Images
Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, five people were attacked by sharks along the New Jersey shoreline, and only one survived. The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 would later inspire Peter Benchley to write the novel "Jaws."
Torsten Blackwood, AFP / Getty Images
In 2006, chimps attacked and killed an employee of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. The chimpanzees also roughed up some American and Canadian workers. Word is they were docile moments before they flew into a rage, biting and tearing at the clothes of anyone within striking distance.
Professor Val Plumwood was famous in her native Australia for surviving the death roll of a saltwater crocodile, an extremely rare feat. She was not, however, able to survive the attack of a snake. The naturalist is believed to have been bitten a few days before being found dead on her property.
Mark Sullivan, WireImage.com
"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin wrestled his nick-namesake and generally palled around with some nasty critters, but it was a seemingly benign stingray that took out the star of TV and movies. The animal's barb pierced Irwin's chest while he and his crew were shooting a documentary in 2006.
Rubberball
People are fascinated by big cats, making them a big draw for zoos. A 4-year-old Siberian tiger at the San Francisco zoo was tired of all the crowd-pleasing on Christmas Day of 2007, and decided to bound over a 20-foot wall to attack zoo patrons. One person was killed and two others were mauled.
AP
Though they haven't killed anyone yet, Australian farmers have recently starting voicing their concerns about hybrid wild dogs. Apparently, when a canine reaches 21 kilos, it has the ability to kill creatures its own weight and above to survive. Farmers say the dogs are currently at 19.5 kilos and growing larger.
Grey Villet, Time Life Pictures / Getty Images


























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Comments:
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Thursday 29 January
By lynn
Just think of all the homeless people that could be fed..
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Thursday 29 January
By gobble gobble
A good ole fashion shotgun will do the job on those birds. Donate the food,end of story!
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Thursday 29 January
By Lisa
The turkey has heard about the lastest from the post office and they don't like!!! LOL OH yes, I know they turkey population hates the ads in the mail. LOL
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Thursday 29 January
By Milli'sMom
I giggled when I read this story about the turkeys chasing the postman. My daughter had a similar experience when she visited a friend's farm in Missouri. My city-raised daughter was walking with her friend when the turkeys decided to surround my daughter. As my daughter backed up, the turkey got more aggressive. My daughter ended up running back to the house with said turkeys in hot pursuit. She got inside the house and wouldn't leave for the rest of the weekend! My daughter now considers it her patriotic duty to eat as much turkey year round (not just Thanksgiving)to rid the world of the evil we know as turkey!
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By T.Man
I agree,A Twelve Guage would end all of this.lol
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By Dixie Down
What a chance for a baked turkey! Who do the birds belong to? Can't they be made to keep them penned?
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By Rockerchick32
LOL I think your comment was funnier then the story.
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By mailman
Really, this takes the goose! Just use the spray and the birds will think twice. Use the mailbag as a go-between, that is what it is designed for. I have had many dogs follow me in one walk, no problem. Wear some extra thick side chaps. Use steeltoe boots and use them! Use vinegar, lemon juice, etc. until you find one that really makes them run away. If you run, a wild animal will pursue you. How about an umbrella? Hungry people everywhere, no jobs, and some turkeys scare you? Let the birds know who is the boss. Watch out for the flamingoes, they will really tear into you.
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Thursday 29 January
By Carrie
:-) When I was a kid, my dad incubated a bunch of turkey eggs. We helped raise them up on his farm. But once they got much bigger they started stalking us kids as we went from barn to barn doing chores. We couldn't walk up and down the gravel road w/out carrying sticks. They'd all try and gang up on you as you walked, getting closer behind you w/ea. step. But as soon as you whipped around to look behind you, they'd all stop in their tracks...and refuse to make eye-contact; all looking this way or that as if they were doing nothing wrong at all! Eventually most of them got lured away from dad's farm by wild turkeys. The ones that didn't leave got killed after they tried to flog our then 3-yr. old brother! We ate those ones.
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Thursday 29 January
By Donna
So funny! We too incubated some turkey eggs. I was the one who assisted with the hatching (delivery). As the chicks grew, they were so attached that they thought I was their mother. They would follow me everywhere. While mine were never aggressive, to people who were never around such birds, their size and actions could be quite intimidating! We had two toms who loved to strut. They do this to impress you. They wanted to win over your attention toward them. Comical breed of birds for sure! They can be quite territorial though... whats theirs is theirs and they make a better guard "dog" than any Doberman! HOWEVER>... in the story above, the birds SHOULD be penned.
Thursday 29 January
By Barb
Yea-there maybe a lot of homeless.hungry people but shooting the turkeys is no way to solve this problem. They are just trying to protect themselves so for all of you who said to get a twelve gauge shotgun, you my friend are a moron!!! There is no reason to be afraid of the turkeys, you have a mailbag you can use for protection or you carry around a spray when a dog is coming at you, USE THAT!! And leave your guns in a LOCKED UP CABINET WHERE IT BELONGS OR BETTER YET--YOU SHOULD NOT EVEN OWN A GUN!! THEY KILL INNOCENCE!!!
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By brad
IDIOT!
Thursday 29 January
By Tom
Barb, guns are just tools. It is people who kill people. And people with guns also protect lives and property. You need to look at some facts about guns and stop reading that liberal crap. Tom
Thursday 29 January
By Kat
They're most likely WILD turkeys and they will likely be trapped and moved to a more remote area. I don't know about turkeys but roosters have spurs that they use to kill each other so they can cause some pretty painful injury to a person if they want.
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By old enough to remember
There are a bunch of wild turkeys in my area. However, they are constantly on the move and have a territory several miles wide, so it would be impossible to trap these big birds. (Don't know about those turkeys in Mass.)
Thursday 29 January
By Pauline
Were those turkeys wild or domestic? Wild turkeys can be rather aggressive. I've seen a wild turkey chase a Great Dane! It was a riot!
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By unclebuck
What a great ideal, The next time I go turkey hunting I'll dress like a mail man and set in a mail truck. Nope I dont think I can shoot a turkey from a truck. Never mind I'll drive there in the mail truck and then get out then shoot..
Reply
Thursday 29 January
By mestena27
Ha,Ha-Donna! How FUN they got that close to you! I never did understand what we did wrong w/ours...never treated them bad a day in their lives! Ungrateful bunch of birds!! I kinda liked them; as a kid, it was just too fun to ignore them while walking, and then let them get SO close (they were reaching their necks out toward our backends..) and then I'd whirl around real quick just to let them know I was on to them! I swear if they could have all whistled innocently, they would have! --Acting as if they weren't trying to sneak up and ambush! Pfft! But...toward the end there, after the little brother got flogged in the front yard (he had a small hole-mark of skin missing in his lower lip from a peck), the step-mom called for their heads and cooked 'em up for dinner. I don't know why they'd go and bite the hand that feeds them, like that. Oh well. We never did raise anymore after that, though.
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Thursday 29 January
By Donna
What happens when you hand raise/incubate eggs to chicks is that you become their flock. They establich pecking order with you. Usually the one who shows fear or the smallest of the clan gets picked on. Thats why they flogged your little brother. Big birds can and are powerful creatures. They can really hurt you. Seriousness aside, they really are funny critters, especially turkeys. Onces raised to breeding age, hope like heck they dont decide to fall in love with you! Because YES THEY WILL do their little mating dance for you! Dont turn your back on them or your head or shoulders, or whatever becomes fair game to them! LOL Ive got a rooster tale but will save it for another post.....
Thursday 29 January
By Michele
I love turkeys, especially with gravy and dressing.
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