CONCORD, NH — She wasn’t the worst turkey to roam Sanbornton’s Birch Rise Farm. But Joanna had some fowl habits, and this close to Thanksgiving, odds of survival on a turkey farm are slim to none. That’s why on Monday, Joanna gobbled her pride and stood up on her own two drumsticks — er, legs — and bravely threw herself at the mercy of the governor.
Governor Chris Sununu was moved.
Perhaps it was Joanna’s plea, to join fellow turkey, Brook (pardoned last year) and live out her days providing entertainment and educational opportunities to those living at Crotched Mountain rehabilitation center. Or perhaps it was the way she peered at him with her penetrating peepers, magnified by her repentant peckish pride.
Whatever it was, Sununu brought Joanna’s pardon petition before the Executive Council and, in the end, Joanna strutted away with the rambling energy of a Lynyrd Skynyrd ballad (cue “Freebird.” )
Following remarks from Sununu and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, the Executive Council unanimously approved the pardon of Joanna, for “theft by unauthorized taking,” (stealing food from her fellow turkeys) and escape and disorderly conduct which, in her own words (as written on her pardon petition) Joanna “may have flown the coop” a few times and blocked traffic.
Her defense? “I was a hungry bird looking for food, and needed to spread my wings.”
Her pardon will allow her to “live out her days under the care of the Crotched Mountain School.”
NOTE: A copy of Joanna the Turkey’s pardon petition can be found here.
You can watch the pardon which was streamed via Facebook live, below.
