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Territorial turkeys blocking mail delivery in Ohio

By Ben Hooper
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Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Residents of an Ohio city are being asked to take down their bird feeders after mail carriers found their routes blocked by a rafter of aggressive wild turkeys.

The U.S. Postal Service branch in Rocky River informed the city that the turkeys have been creating hazardous conditions for mail carriers in multiple neighborhoods and about 25 to 30 homes haven't been able to receive their mail at all during the past three weeks.

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Rocky River Mayor Pam Bobst said residents are being asked to take down their bird feeders in an attempt to get the turkeys to vacate the area.

"There's a lot of bird feeders over there so there's a food source in that area," she told Cleveland.com. "It is an issue so we've asked residents to cease putting out bird seed and bird food so we can see if they will go down to the Metroparks."

Rocky River resident Dave Liberatore captured video of his recent encounter with a group of the territorial turkeys while he was out walking his dog.

"My wife was about 20 feet ahead of me telling me to go faster than I was and I probably should have been listening," Liberatore told WJW-TV. "They did that same thing where they kind of lower their head and get some speed going toward you to make sure that you know that they mean business and it worked. I sped up, too."

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Neighbor Chris Lambrinides said his postal worker is one of those who have found their paths blocked by the turkeys.

"He's not able to deliver at all times because they'll attack him so we got a notice that we have to go to the post office to pick up our mail," Lambrinides said.

David Van Allen, regional spokesman for the post office, said carriers are attempting measures including delivering later in the evening to see if they can avoid turkey attacks.

"The carriers are carrying an air horn to see if that will scare off the turkeys, if that will discourage them," he said. "We're attempting to deliver every day and we will continue to do that."

He said some postal workers have been pecked by the turkeys, but they were not seriously injured.

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