Poultry farmer finds fair end for fowl story

PALMER — The well-publicized story of the turkey slaughtered behind Gov. Sarah Palin During a pre-Thanksgiving television interview is finding new life on the Internet.

After the governor pardoned one turkey at Triple D Farm and Hatchery on Nov. 20, unbeknownst to her at the time, another was being prepared for the table. Now that unfortunate bird is on eBay for sale to the highest bidder.

“Well, ever since the big hubbub and everyone trying to use it as bad, I decided to make something good out of it,” said Anthony Schmidt, owner of the farm. “It’s all Channel 2’s fault. Nobody else got that shot. They knew what they were doing.”

So he put the bird on the popular online auction house to raise money. If the bird sells, he said he will donate half the profits to the local Veterans Affairs to help homeless veterans. The other half he intends to use to try to get his daughter back from Kiev, Ukraine, where he says his wife is keeping her.

“I saw opportunity knocking and decided to open the door and let opportunity in,” Schmidt said.

“If it sells, great,” he said. “If not, I know I can sell it around here.”

The $225 asking price, Schmidt said, is based on the bird’s 37.75-pound weight, plus costs associated with shipping to the highest bidder.

The auction is scheduled to end tonight at 11:59:54 Alaska Standard Time. Schmidt said as of Thursday morning there were 818 viewers and 15 watching.

“My daughter said the number of people watching is the main thing,” he said.

Schmidt said the whole pardoning idea was meant to be a fun, light-hearted event.

“But my crew was on the clock. They’d been off for about 45 minutes and we had work to do,” Schmidt said, saying he thought the show was over. “I told them to get back to work, and then they (reporters) starting asking more questions. I didn’t see it coming.”

Since the scene went worldwide, Schmidt said he had lots of cancellations from people who had promised to buy turkeys.

“One Anchorage woman said she had ordered a turkey, but said she didn’t want it because I trashed the governor’s reputation. Another woman wrote, ‘Karma will find you in the end.’ I got a good chuckle out of that one,” he said.

On a positive note, Schmidt said he received a note from a doctor in Philadelphia who praised him, saying it was evident that Schmidt has respect for the animals by the way the video showed the turkey being killed in a fast and efficient manner. Schmidt said the doctor also went on to praise him for providing local food and not making people buy groceries that are shipped all over the world.

Another positive from the much ballyhooed food harvest: “I didn’t get too much trouble from Alaskans.”

Contact T.C. Mitchell at valleylife@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.