Royce Bair/Getty Male turkey colors of feathers in Zion National Park.

Related Thieves kill family's pet turkey for Thanksgiving meal, officers say Pensacola News Journal

One Florida family had to spend Thanksgiving without their turkey, because two men kidnapped and killed their pet bird with a bow and arrow.

The robbery happened in south Florida, where Tom the turkey lived as a pet on Brian and Christa Caponi’s 6-acre property. Despite his hefty 30-pound size, the Caponis didn’t think of Tom as food. “He was a family pet,” Christa Caponi told the Pensacola News Journal. “It was like having a normal family dog.”

Early on Monday, Brian Caponi got up to feed their 50 animals and realized something was wrong. There were blood and feathers in Tom’s pen, and Tom was nowhere to be found. Caponi turned to his security cameras, which confirmed his fears — the video showed one man snatching Tom while another ran along the fence.

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Caponi went to the police, who tracked down two men who admitted that they had entered Tom’s pen and shot him with a bow and arrow. They then slung the animal into the back of their pickup truck. When the police caught up with them, they said they were on their way to butcher the bird in preparation for Thanksgiving. Police arrested Joshua Anderson, 19, and Jacob Provo, 18, and charged them with armed burglary, armed trespassing, theft of livestock and animal cruelty, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

This Thanksgiving, the Caponis are coming to terms with the loss of a friend. “It’s been a very rough two days. He was so friendly,” Christa told the PNJ. “My husband and I are big animal lovers. Our animals are very close to us.”

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