Elvis

This precious girl was living as a stray in Des Moines, Iowa before she was rescued—and that’s really all we know about her past. Elvis was very young when she joined the IFS family, and based on her mannerisms, we originally thought she was male. Silly us! We quickly realized that she was our turkey queen!

Elvis’s breed is the most commonly used for meat production. The turkey industry is a heartbreaking business, with turkeys being genetically manipulated to have white feathers and flesh, and to grow to be unnaturally large. In this industry, most turkeys are kept in tiny cages for their entire lives. To prevent the turkeys from harming one another in their confinement, it is standard practice to debeak them (cut off a portion of the beak, usually using a hot blade). Thankfully, wherever she came from, Elvis was never debeaked.

Elvis was the sweetest little gal we’ve ever met. She was incredibly social, curious, and affectionate. She enjoyed the company of her fellow rescued turkey residents (Pearson, Cirrus, and Statrus), but she also really loved to hang out with the goats! There were moments when we thought that Elvis might have actually thought that she was a goat. And we were so okay with that! Elvis brought joy to everyone she met, and we are so thankful to have had her in the IFS family.