(Photo: Aldo Hynes/flickr)

Ah, autumn. The brightly colored leaves! The crisp Thanksgiving turkeys! The … brightly colored Thanksgiving turkeys? 

Every year for decades, the folks at Gozzi’s Turkey Farm in Guilford, Connecticut have been using a temporary feather dye to turn their white turkeys blazing shades of pink, purple, and yellow. 

 

A photo posted by aba45 (@aba45) on

For the most part, people don’t go pick up their turkeys at small family-owned farms anymore–Gozzi’s sold 150,000 birds a year in the 1970s, but by the late ’80s they were down to under 20,000. If you want to compete against easily-available, widely-distributed supermarket meats, you gotta have a gimmick, and for Gozzi’s it’s Manic Panic birds.

 

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But you don’t have to be a meat-eater to appreciate the Gozzi’s turkeys. The Gozzis are tight-lipped about the exact formulation and method of their feather dyes, but it doesn’t hurt the birds (and owner Bill Gozzi says they kind of like the attention). Animal lovers should be able to visit the birds without distress.

(Photo: Aldon Hynes/flickr)

After all, as Bill Gozzi pointed out to Today news, the punked-out gobblers are meant as attractions, not dinner. Turkeys that are fixing to be eaten are already packaged up, not strutting about with hairdos. “Those are the only ones walking around here Thanksgiving morning,” he said. “They’re the lucky ones.”

 

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Every day, we track down a fleeting wonder—something amazing that’s only happening right now. Have a tip for us? Tell us about it! Send your temporary miracles to edit@atlasobscura.com.