Last fall there was a large land turtle crossing the County Road between Montpelier and our house. The car ahead of me stopped, and we waited for it to finish crossing. My wife and two of my children told me later that day that they also encountered the turtle crossing the road. Apparently, it went back and forth across the road all day, maybe hauling back food for its winter store or something.
Anyway, everybody stopped for it. No squashed turtle.
If we can do it safely, so do we. Last Summer, my husband tried to assist a Maryland Terrapin across the road. I am telling you this turtle was the meanest thing! Hissed, snapped and just raised quite the ruckus. When my husband finally got it into some tall grass (a marsh), the turtle turned around, hissed one more time and went on his merry way. No wonder U of Md has it as a mascot... they are quite attitudinal. LOL!
I do also if the traffic permits it. This is another example of power or actually perceived power. People are feeling more and more powerless in their daily lives and killing a small creature shows the animal who is boss. It’s not just turtles either. How can someone run over a raccoon or opossum in a 25 or 30 mile speed zone? I can understand on a major highway but in residential communities there is no excuse for not steering around it.
even in today's more enlightened, modern world, sometimes humans feel a need to prove they are the dominant species on this planet
I can't believe this is allegedly an AP news story and not an editorial the way it is written.
I drive like they are democrats headed across the road for 0bama phones and free birth control.
I’ve pulled off the road to move turtles. I don’t understand how anyone could deliberately want to hit something. I had a bird once fly in front of my car window, hit the front and plop dead on the hood. I pulled off the road, saw the little guy was a goner and cried. Took about ten minutes before I was ok enough to get back in the car and drive home.
I like the comment with the idea of making foam rubber turtle replicas with big metal spikes in them and positioning them so a driver has to go out of the way to hit them.
Wouldn’t a hard shell animal damage the car/paint? Doesn’t make sense.
Sounds like a case for government intervention. /s
I hope that student realizes that if someone had an accident because of her stunt, and was injured, she’d be facing a FELONY charge.
I feel I am accumulating good luck or good karma doing it ....so I will always help the turtle across the road. Some tribes called it Turtle Island, where we live
It’s pretty weird that some people feel the need to run over small animals.
My rule is pretty simply. Any animal other than a squirrel I will try to avoid hitting them. I will not put my self in danger trying to avoid them.
Squirrels on the other hand do not get the courtesy of me trying to avoid them. I will not try to run them over, but will not try to avoid them either.
The reason being I once tried to avoid a squirrel and wound up rolling a pick up truck. Yes, all squirrels must pay for the mistake of one squirrel.
Yep, there are people who needlessly take life. There are probably way more who run over animals because they are inconvenient, they slow them down and make them late and make them use more gas. It’s sort of like the difference between the nut job in Connecticut and people who are for abortion.
http://news.yahoo.com/college-students-turtle-project-takes-dark-twist-182457207.html
10000 comments at yahoo news for this story. Most I have ever seen
If you don’t run over them the get into the sewers and mutate into teenage ninjas.
Roads are for automobiles. It’s up to everything and everybody else using the roads to adapt.
Turtlle soup
Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless turtle meat
3 cups water
1 medium onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
½ large bell pepper, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
⅛ teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped bell pepper
½ cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
5 cups reserved turtle stock
½ cup red wine
¼ cup dry sherry
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoon flour
¼ cup minced parsley
¼ cup minced green onions
2 boiled eggs, peeled & chopped
4 tablespoon dry sherry
Directions:
Combine turtle meat, water, quartered onion, celery, bell pepper, 2 bay leaves, ⅛ teaspoon cracked black pepper, and 1 teaspoon minced garlic in a 4-quart pot. Bring to boil, lower fire to medium and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Drain stock through mesh strainer, reserving stock in bowl. Allow meat to cool, then separate from rest of ingredients discarding everything but the turtle meat. Coarse chop the meat and set aside.
Heat butter in pot, add onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic. Sauté for 10 minutes over medium fire. Add thyme, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes and continue to cook until water from tomatoes evaporates.
Add tomato sauce, 5 cups reserved turtle stock, red wine, sherry, salt, hot sauce, cracked pepper, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce. Cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes over medium fire.
In small sauté pan heat butter until melted over medium-low fire. Place melted butter in a bowl and stir in flour until completely blended. Whisk butter-flour roux into soup and allow soup to simmer for 1 minute until blended and soup thickens slightly.
Add turtle meat, cover pot and cook for additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Mince boiled eggs and set aside. Stir parsley and green onions into turtle soup.
Divide turtle soup between 4 bowls and top each with minced egg and 1 tablespoon dry sherry.
I stop and get the animal off the road. Usually do the same thing for snakes if they are not venomous.
When my wife was a teacher, she heard her students bragging about a game they play. They have a contest to see who can kill the most dogs or cats in a night. I told her not to tell me who these kids were. I didn’t want to end up in prison.