Posted on 07/15/2005 6:28:16 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Who got to make the turtle soup?
Snapping turtles will happily take your finger off, the crabby things. If you hit one with your car, you'll get a flat tire and the turtle will be fine and probably laugh at you. One of those things went nuts on me once, and I'll never forgive them.
He would probably be charged with multiple state crimes involving the discharge of a firearm and animal cruelty, and the feds would likely get involved to investigate if the turtle was an endagered species.
a 50 pound snapper is big enough and ornery enough to be a hazard. these things haven't evolved in millenia - they haven't needed to. they fear nothing and nothing poses a threat to them save man.
these things are true dinosaurs in every sense of the word. magnificent animals, well suited to their tasks, but they are nonery as heck when someone or something bugs them. they will attack and they will chase a human through water (I know from experience).
when they bite, they will NOT loosen their grip until they sense that whatever they bit is dead - no more struggles, and then only gradually, slowly.
unlike many turtles, their head does not retract into their shell - itt won't fit, but then again it doesn't have to. they can almost reach their tail, wihch is the only means by which one can pick one up, but beware - their neck is longer and more powerful than you might think.
You can safely pick up a snapper by its tail but I have to admit that at 50 pounds I wouldn't try it. However I wouldn't have shot it either......the things been around for quite a long time.
this horrible.....typing thru tears....don't you cruel freepers know that turtles live forever....they're like unicorns.
this savage officer should be shot
has a memorial fund been set up for the deceased's family
"sob"
OK turtle, I'll give you till the count of 3 to get off this property.
I may be mistaken, but isn't there is difference between the two? And a snapping turtle isn't a tortoise, is it? I guess you can always count on journalists...
When I find them in the road I put them in the trunk and take them to the nearest body of water.
these things are highly dangerous creatures. I watched one once in a park pond. all it showed was the tip of it's nose, like a pencil eraser above the water. he would just break the surface and inhale, then silently slide back down into the depths. he would stay down for 20 minutes, and passsers by would not know he was there. anybody dangling their feet into the water would be in serious trouble.
when he would come to the surface, i could see that his shell was a good 20 inches or so across. silent, deadly, and lethal. the cop did a good thing to shoot him.
LOL
I'm having difficulty picturing this.
I used to see snappers frequently near our pond sunning themselves, close to Wyalusing,PA but they never came to the house to visit. Too many groundhogs I suppose
my brother found a big snapper once. he put it in the back of his staion wagon and took it to where we were all hanging around. when we looked into the back of the car, it was empty.
a closer examination revealled that he had maneged to get under the driver's seat. He wouldn't come out, so we had to unbolt the seat(from below) and remove it in order to get the thing out.brother never did anything that stupid again.
Are you sure you aren't talking about the movie "Jaws"?
The worst most snapping turtles usually do is eat ducklings.
I sugegsted to Mystic Marinelife Aquarium that they feature one or two in an exhibit. I offerred to catch them if they would put our names on the placard. they declined citing "animal husbandry issues" whatever that means.
Anyway, after I had made the turn around and came back, the turtle was just climbing up onto the median but she still had to navigate the north bound road to get to the pond. So I picked her up and helped her across the street and dropped her into the pond. I say she because I suspect she was returning from the woods from an egg laying journey. I would say she was in the neighborhood of 30 pounds......
I think he should have called Animal Control first to see if they would come relocate it. If they then refused for safety reasons or weren't available, I think shooting it is excuseable, although unfortunate.
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