Not just for Christmas: How three turkeys were saved from the dinner table
With His Cat Parnell Moya The Cleo, Friend Fionnuala Nolan Pictures: And Best Dustin
A group of Ireland’s luckiest turkeys have managed to cheat death for the third Christmas in a row, thanks to the heroic efforts of one animal lover.
Best friends Dustin, Zig, and Zag were being prepared for the dinner table before Fionnuala Parnell stepped in to adopt them.
The Dublin woman received a call from Susan Anderson of Little Hill Animal Rescue in Kildare, who asked if she could take in the three amigos more than two years ago.
Ms Anderson had been desperate to save the birds, who were among the last few destined for Christmas dinner plates. The rescue shelter — which has taken in some turkeys over the years and rehomed the rest — was delighted to find a loving owner for the gang.
Dustin, Zig, and Zag are in good company, sharing the yard with a menagerie of other rescue animals. They include 30 cats, 11 roosters and 10 hens. Fionnuala, who works as a civil servant, also has six turtles, as well as a number of fish.
While Dustin is known for his formidable nature, he has a soft spot for one of Fionnuala’s cats, Cleo. The pair are often seen huddling up to each other in what has become an unlikely friendship.
“It’s only the big one Dustin that you have to watch out for,” Fionnuala warned. “He is the big and bold one and is known to charge. He decided the garden was his and that every human is an interloper. Fortunately, it’s only the humans that he doesn’t like.
Fionnuala said the turkeys have a better quality of life than their predecessors Twinkle and Star, who experienced a litany of health problems resulting from their breeding.
“I did have bronze turkeys the year before Dustin and the others came. Their names were Twinkle and Star and they were enormous, but very sweet. You’d often have one of them putting their head on your knee to be stroked.
"They were fed high-protein food to make sure they were as large as possible for Christmas. This meant they were prone to things like respiratory distress because their bodies couldn’t manage the weight.
"My vet was great to them. One of them used to have acupuncture.”
The civil servant has always been an animal lover.
"I’m a vegetarian. Our family never considered eating turkey at Christmas. My brother has been a vegan from the time he was tiny. I don’t know what it was but he couldn’t stomach meat. We were raised not to eat meat. My father was a real animal lover and was always bringing home cats."
She said more families are opting for alternative Christmas dinners.
“There are a lot of people who think you have to eat turkey on Christmas Day. However, families are getting smaller now and some don’t want the hassle of cooking something so enormous.”
Meanwhile manager and co-founder of Little Hill Animal Rescue Susan Anderson spoke about the rewarding nature of adopting rescue turkeys.
"Because they are bred to put on weight dramatically and really quickly, much of the time their legs can’t carry the burden. This is why a lot of them come to us with arthritic conditions. We always bring them to the vet to improve any issues they might have. One of our turkeys — Tommi — lived to be 11 years old.”