PETA Demands Turkey Memorial; Utah: Uh, No

A week and a half ago, a tractor-trailer plunged into a reservoir in Utah, killing more than 700 of the 720 souls aboard. Those souls were turkeys, and as such PETA wasted no time in requesting that the Utah Department of Transportation put up a roadside memorial to commemorate "the hundreds of terrified turkeys who died here in a truck crash," reports the Salt Lake Tribune. Such a memorial would "cut down on future accidents and make the roads safer for everyone by reminding tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they haul every year," said PETA's proposal. Two days later came the DOT's response, as per KSL: In a word, "no."

"This request does not meet the policy standards for roadside memorial signs and UDOT will not make an exception to the policy in this case," wrote region director TeriAnne Newell, citing the purpose of such memorials as validating "the needs of grieving families and friends" —and only after UDOT gets an agreement in writing from the family. PETA, never short on creativity, argued to ditch that requirement, because turkeys born into a factory farming environment have no living relatives. (More PETA stories.)