Jim Rice: Remembering Henrietta the turkey as more than a nuisance

To The Daily Sun,

For more than a year, our Laconia neighborhood had a visitor. We called her “Henrietta.”

Henrietta became a beloved part of our community. She visited our yards, ate birdseed, chased squirrels and chipmunks, drank from our birdbaths, and perched on a fence as though guarding the neighborhood.

On cold winter mornings, she settled into a tree to warm herself. In the afternoons, she tucked herself among the flower beds for a nap. While gardening, we would see her head pop up, almost as if she were saying, “How dare you interrupt my nap?”

She developed a habit of chasing our cars as we left for work. It could be frustrating, but it was also amusing — and made Henrietta memorable.

She became a local celebrity when her photograph appeared in The Laconia Daily Sun.

Then, Henrietta disappeared. We wondered where our turkey had gone. Then came the heartbreaking news: she had been destroyed after a nuisance complaint that she was pecking at cars while reacting to her reflection.

I understand that wildlife can create problems and that officials face difficult decisions. But when an animal has lived peacefully in a neighborhood for more than a year and become part of the community, shouldn’t we ask whether there was another way?

Wildlife shares this community with us. When conflicts arise, compassion should be part of the solution. Before an animal is destroyed, we should consider whether humane alternatives are possible and whether a nuisance can be managed without ending a life.

Henrietta may have been a nuisance to some, but to many of us, she was a neighbor.

May her story remind us that compassion matters — not only for the wildlife we share our community with, but for the kind of community we choose to be.

Jim Rice

Laconia