Pardoned turkey is not going to Disneyland

WASHINGTON - The turkey that President Obama will pardon this year for Thanksgiving is going to George Washington's house, not Mickey Mouse's, after his life is spared.

A Disneyland spokesman said Friday that after five years of taking turkeys, the park will no longer become home to the bird the president pardons in an annual White House ceremony.

Instead, after Obama pardons the turkey Wednesday, the fortunate fowl will live out the rest of its life at Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Presidents have pardoned a turkey at Thanksgiving for years, but where the bird goes after its White House cameo has changed. For 15 years, until 2004, the turkeys went to historic Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, Va.

Disneyland took over in 2005 when it was celebrating its 50th anniversary. The pardoned turkey and an alternate - Marshmallow and Yam - got a police escort to the airport and flew first class to California.

Marshmallow became the grand marshal of Disneyland's Thanksgiving parade, and the sign above his float read "The Happiest Turkey on Earth." The turkeys then retired to a coop at the park's Big Thunder Ranch, where three other pardoned birds - Courage and Carolina from 2009, and 2008's Pecan - still live. Florida's Walt Disney World got the birds from 2007, when they arrived on a United Airlines flight that was renamed "Turkey One."

The turkey being pardoned this year will arrive in Washington from California next week and stay at the W Hotel, just a block from the White House. Once at Mount Vernon, he'll be driven to his pen in a horse-drawn carriage and be greeted with a trumpet fanfare.

Emily Coleman Dibella, a Mount Vernon spokeswoman, says it's appropriate that the turkey will go there. The Washingtons raised and ate turkeys at Mount Vernon, and wild turkeys still roam the estate.