The Westboro Baptist Church was bombarded with calls yesterday after a parody news site listed its phone number as a hotline for information aboutt turkeys contaminated with a new, deadly strain of avian flu.

The National Report claimed the CDC had confirmed a new form of the virus found in turkeys distributed by a major supplier. The site warned consumers not to eat any turkey on Thanksgiving, because the virus could withstand cooking temperatures:

One of the most troubling characteristics of the virus is its resistance to heat. While many viruses are destroyed during the cooking process, this specific virus has shown immense heat tolerance. Dave McBridle, a spokesman for the National Turkey Producers Association, gave the following advice to consumers:

In early testing, this virus has shown enormous ability to withstand cooking temperatures. This makes this a much more dangerous situation. In our food safety laboratory, we have found that only deep frying cooking methods have been effective at reducing the viral load, and even then, by only about 50%. At this point, we can not recommend any preparation method as safe.

The virus could also reportedly turn the turkey green.

The National Report warns that most of its stories are "fictitious" and "presumably fake," but that didn't stop concerned people from calling the non-existent "Turkey Safety Hotline," which just turned out to be the Westboro Baptist Church. Commenters on the original article complained that the phone line was busy all day, ruining their Thanksgiving dinner plans.

But a Thanksgiving ruined for sensational-headline-readers and the Westboro Baptist Church is a pretty successful Thanksgiving for the rest of us.

h/t Pink News