Nation’s luckiest turkey arrives in DC

Every year, a small-town turkey is spared its feathers but plucked from obscurity and ushered to the White House for a presidential pardon.

For 2014, the lucky gobbler (and its alternate) came from a farm in Fort Recovery, Ohio, under the care of Gary Cooper his son, Cole. The turkeys were officially presented to the public at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Tuesday.

{mosads}”The turkeys tried to order room service, but we stopped that from happening,” Gary Cooper said.

For the Coopers, raising turkeys for the White House tradition is a family affair. Gary’s brother Jim Cooper had previously raised one for the Clintons in 1996.

Once pardoned, the turkeys will live out their days at Morven Park in Leesburg, Va. Americans eat more than 45 million of the birds each Thanksgiving, so the odds of being chosen for the presidential pardon are lottery-level astronomic.

The two 50-pound turkeys will be brought to the White House tomorrow and named in a special ceremony. President Obama will use social media to choose names for both birds, as he did last year.

Cole Cooper said that he’ll miss the turkeys when they hit the big time.

“I’ve raised a lot of animals, but these guys have been special,” he says. Cole expects the turkeys to be on their best behavior.