Domestic turkeys can't fly, but wild turkeys can, Habib said. Like other birds in their order, called Galliformes, wild turkeys just can't fly for long — just long enough to get up into a tree or out of danger. The turkey drop is held the same weekend as the Yellville Chamber of Commerce’s Turkey Trot, a festival to highlight the state’s spot as one of the country’s top turkey-producing states. Activities include a road race, music, dancing and a pageant. For the past 50 years during the festival, a local pilot has flown a plane and dropped domestic turkeys from a height of about 500 feet (150 meters) over local fields, according to the Huffington Post.  The Federal Aviation Administration has found no violations with an infamous Arkansas event that involves dropping live turkeys from a plane ― but that may be because no one ever thought they’d need a rule about that. A wild turkey is released from a plane flying over Crooked Creek during the 72nd annual Turkey Trot in Yellville, Arkansas, Oct. 14, 2017. Photo: Wallace Kirkland/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 1953 Yellville, Arkansas Turkey Trot 1 / 8 Back to Gallery 
 
 A story on the Baxter Bulletin advancing the Turkey Trot said, “The weather forecast in Yellville this weekend is sunny with a chance of falling turkeys.” The Bulletin wrote that the turkeys, “which usually flutter to the ground are chased down and claimed by festival attendees.” 
 
 It has been said that the famous “WKRP in Cincinnati” Thanksgiving episode in 1978, where live turkeys were dropped from a helicopter, may have been inspired in part by the turkey drop in Yellville.
– No matter how busy the holiday travel season, you're pretty much guaranteed to have a smoother flight than the unfortunate turkeys involved in Arkansas' Turkey Trot. The annual October festival in Yellville sees turkeys hurled from buildings and a plane flying 500 feet above the ground. Disturbed? You're not alone. Tommy Lee is among those to bash the "sick" tradition, reports Arkansas Online. Live Science explains the uproar: Domestic turkeys are bred for flightlessness, their bodies too heavy for their wings to get them off the ground. While their wings can slow a descent, there's no guarantee domestic turkeys will survive falls from great heights. The same is true of wild turkeys, which can only fly short distances. Indeed, two turkeys dropped from a plane last year died on impact. At least four turkeys dropped this year were found injured and bleeding, though they've since found refuge at a New York shelter, where they were named John, Ringo, George, and Paul, per the Fairfield Citizen. The town of Yellville technically stopped throwing turkeys in 1989—continuing the Turkey Trot festival started in 1946 with a dance, race, and parade—but local pilots continue to throw turkeys, per the Citizen and Baxter Bulletin. Despite animal activists' appeals, the FAA says it doesn't have the authority to intervene. "FAA regulations do not specifically prohibit dropping live animals from aircraft, possibly because the authors of the regulation never anticipated that an explicit prohibition would be necessary," a rep tells the Huffington Post, adding, "This does not mean we endorse the practice."