The routine police call was about squatters in an abandoned building in San Bernardino stealing power from a neighbor. Police showed up to the fire-charred vacant structure to take a gander. And there were plenty of ganders to take.
Inside were 56 turkeys and 47 geese, all alive, gobbling and honking. Someone not present was breeding them and caring for them. Feeders and stored food were onsite. The setup even had amenities, of a sort, for the animals.
“There were temporary fencing panels set up inside,” Kris Watson, director of animal services, says. “They had a decent run area.”
In the best sense, then, there was fowl play.
This was in late July. Police called in code enforcement, whose job is to cluck at unsafe or illegal conditions. And a gaggle of Animal Services employees had the unenviable task of going inside and rounding up the 103 fowls.
I hope they didn’t enter while the turkeys were dressing.
“My vet staff and animal control staff had their hands full wrangling them in triple-digit weather,” Watson tells me, chuckling.
Is there video? Please tell me there is video.
The 179 W. Highland Ave. building, vacant for a decade, was only brick walls, with no roof. Yes, the fowls were living in a shell.
So were some unhoused people. They were the ones stealing the power from the Arco station next door, which led to the discovery.
How long were the animals kept there? That’s unknown, Watson says. But the turkeys had molted for the summer, with enough loose feathers around to indicate that they’d done so on the premises.
Still, exposed to the sun in our recent heat waves, the turkeys and geese must have been roasting.
The fowls were impounded, as were the feeders and the remaining food, and transported to the animal shelter. The owner had two weeks to claim his animals. Meanwhile, Animal Services went about making other arrangements for the turkeys and geese.
When the owner ducked responsibility, Duck Sanctuary in Winchester took the animals on Wednesday.
“It’s definitely one of the largest and most unusual rescues we’ve had,” says Animal Services’ Watson. The animal shelter mostly has cats and dogs, but it’s had pigs, and currently has, she says, “a couple of ducks and a few chickens and roosters.”
Jeff Kraus, the city’s spokesperson, is in our conversation. “Last year it was alligators,” he points out.
That’s true: Last November, police investigating squatters in a residence on Santa Fe Street found two young alligators, each more than 2 feet long. They were taken to the shelter and then relocated to an exotic animal sanctuary in Phelan.
During Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Kraus gave a report on the geese and turkeys.
Councilmember Damon Alexander interjected: “Hey, Jeff, how about one of those turkeys for the San Bernardino Turkey Trot?”
“We did find them all good homes,” Kraus said, “and they’ve been pardoned for Thanksgiving.”
Watch the skies
Twentynine Palms through Tuesday is hosting an event with the tongue-in-cheek name Area 29: Galactic Gathering. It will combine a watch party for the Perseid meteor shower with talks about extraterrestrials, a selection of sci-fi and alien-encounter movies and a promised “alien-themed pool party” at Luckie Park.
Among the more intriguing offerings Saturday at Corner 62 (73552 29 Palms Highway) is a talk by author Chris Campion in which he’ll show rare photos from “Saturation 70,” a never-completed Gram Parsons film partly shot at the 1969 UFO Convention at Giant Rock.
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Although that may not be better than Sunday’s craft activity at Grnd Sqrl (73471 29 Palms Highway): “make your own alien artifact with stray ceramics.”
brIEfly
On the back of his car in the Chino Challenge Demolition Derby, driver Trevor Hanlon dropped to one knee, pulled out a ring box and proposed to his girlfriend of three years, Brittney Rivera, in front of 3,500 people at the Chino Fairgrounds on July 20. According to a story in the Chino Valley Champion, she immediately said yes. This must have been a huge relief to Hanlon, who is also a Chino Valley firefighter. Imagine if his proposal of marriage at the demolition derby had crashed and burned.
For David Allen, each Friday, Sunday and Wednesday is crunch time. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.
