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Riviera Oaks employee shares sad news about Archer

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By Maureen Robertson

Wednesday, July 17—

Ramona resident Greg Kitchen opened his

Ramona Sentinel

today and decided he’d better call with the bad news.

Archer, the wild turkey who became a neighborhood celebrity after someone shot an arrow through his chest in April, is dead.

“I saw him yesterday morning,” said Kitchen, who works with the maintenance department at Riviera Oaks Resort and Racquet Club in San Diego Country Estates. “He was hunkered down and didn’t look too good.”

Two employees found Archer’s carcass on Riviera Oaks property just below the racquet club this morning, Kitchen said.

“He probably died in the night,” commented Kitchen, who noted that Archer hadn’t been very active since his release last Thursday evening in the Tennis Condos complex adjacent to the racquet club.

Dr. Carrie Bone, veterinarian at Acacia Animal Health Center in Escondido, removed the arrow from Archer after two California Fish and Wildlife biologists captured him in late June. After recuperating in a foster home in Ramona, Archer was strong enough to go home, Doug Lake, Emergency Animal Rescue executive director, said before his release off Pappas Road and Davis Cup Lane.

After his release, Archer remained an outcast of the older turkeys living in the area and he was following the younger birds, said Kitchen, who assumes an infection “took him down.”

Archer and his return to his Country Estates home are the subject of an article on page 3 of this week’s

Sentinel

.
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