I Wish I Hadn't Seen this.

If you do not want to read something that is incredibly sad, and will make you incredibly angry, or if, like me, you can't handle cruelty to defenseless animals, then don't read this. Seriously, don't. In fact I recommend you don't read it.

I saw this by accident. I was coming in from the garage, and the TV was on, and there it was. Too late. I saw it.

A man on a beach, in the dark, with a large spot light. He was looking for turtles. He found a sea turtle who had just finished laying her eggs in a hole she had dug. There must have been fifty eggs or so. He scooped them up out of the hold, and put them in a burlap bag. She was still in the process of laying eggs. They were still coming out of her. He got behind her, and put them in his bag as they came out. AS THEY CAME OUT.

She held up her head for a while and watched him, but then laid her head down in the sand and closed her eyes. Sad, resolved. There was nothing she could do.

You know how many of her eggs he left her? None. Not one.

I went back to the garage. I couldn't stand to watch anymore, so I have no idea what he did to the mother herself. When I returned, the murdering greedy SOB was being interviewed by a reporter. His defense was "we have families".

Well, good for him because the turtle doesn't.

I believe this was in China, but not sure. China is also the country who is driving up the number of elephants being killed. They are buying tons of ivory a year to carve trinkets. No conscience? No morality or values? Much of the Ivory is being sold by ISIS, and if I know that, then they must. They are doing these things with impunity. I can't imagine why. They are untouchable with their economic strength.

Human beings are vile creatures who in their vast ignorance and greed have no respect for nature, and it's many treasures. This was on AJAM and I don't know if the site has the vid. I didn't look for it.

I'm probably going to regret putting this up. I'm sorry. I can't hang around right now, too many tasks to accomplish this afternoon.

Anyway, this is an image I would like very much not to be in my head. But there it is.

I can't say I'm too perturbed by this.

Reptiles especially lay large clutches of eggs and then depart. They are not there when the eggs hatch and a very small percentage of those turtles would have made it through the gauntlet of predators to the sea.

Would you begrudge any other predator for eating those eggs?

We live in a world where opportunity and cruelty are often the deciding factors for survival. Not a heart-warming sentiment but the truth seldom is.

well...food is food.

presuming they were to be food, anyway.

Oh man .... The anger I felt when I saw a video of what the Chinese do to dogs, I can't even describe!

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It's not like we have an abundance of sea turtles. Or elephants. Or whales. We don't. Let him grow a garden of butter beans to feed his family.

originally posted by: angeldoll
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It's not like we have an abundance of sea turtles. Or elephants. Or whales. We don't. Let him grow a garden of butter beans to feed his family.

I hear ya

But in a world where afghan boys are raped on US military bases, i have to budget my outrage.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan

originally posted by: angeldoll
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It's not like we have an abundance of sea turtles. Or elephants. Or whales. We don't. Let him grow a garden of butter beans to feed his family.

I hear ya

But in a world where afghan boys are raped on US military bases, i have to budget my outrage.

You are not alone in that feeling.

a reply to: valiant I like dogs, but I can't eat a whole one. I am also positive that if hungry enough you would begin to see things a little differently. Things are playing out exactly as they were intended to, from whichever viewpoint it can't be any other way, logically.

a reply to: kenzohattori69

I wasn't talking about them eating them, am sure I would too if I was hungry enough trying to survive! The way they gathered around this dog in the video and took turns in kicking it and stamping on it's head while smiling, in no circumstance do I ever think that is right, it was #ing disgusting! made me sick to my stomach.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

You have no idea how much I agree with you.

What a terrible waste. Thanks for posting.

Pretty high up here, in our first world tower.

originally posted by: Lysergic
Pretty high up here, in our first world tower.

The higher the view, the easier it is for people to blame skewed priorities on perspective.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

I'm with the furry one

Food is food, and like corvuscorrax said the percentage survival rate is very low.

Finding Nemo wasn't a documentary, and if I were hungry enough I'd eat whatever I could get my hands on, dog included, I wouldn't enjoy killing it apart from the fact my hunger was about to be satisfied.

It's a cruel world

And again like my furry cousin I only have so much rage to to use up.

Cody

The obvious thing is that if the man was going to take the eggs, it would be sensible to leave some for continuity.

This video, (in an area of Costa Rica) is of one of the only places you can harvest the eggs legally, otherwise you are poaching.



Ironically it is because so many Sea Turtles come to this area to lay the eggs, a second wave of layers damage what was left by the first wave.

originally posted by: smurfy
The obvious thing is that if the man was going to take the eggs, it would be sensible to leave some for continuity.

This really wouldn't have made a difference. As I said in my post most reptiles lay large clutches of eggs and less than 10% actually make it to adulthood assuming the clutch goes undisturbed until they hatch.

Leaving a few eggs would have just meant the gulls or whatever other predators waiting for the hatching season would have less to fight over, and most assuredly none would have survived that purge.

originally posted by: corvuscorrax

originally posted by: smurfy
The obvious thing is that if the man was going to take the eggs, it would be sensible to leave some for continuity.

This really wouldn't have made a difference. As I said in my post most reptiles lay large clutches of eggs and less than 10% actually make it to adulthood assuming the clutch goes undisturbed until they hatch.

Leaving a few eggs would have just meant the gulls or whatever other predators waiting for the hatching season would have less to fight over, and most assuredly none would have survived that purge.

Yes, I get that, I was cut offline before I could post the rest as above, if this guy the OP referred to was on his own though, he was likely poaching.

Hi. Update. I literally just walked in the door, and believe it or not, at the moment I walked in they were running that story again so I watched the whole thing this time.

Firstly, it was not in China, my apologies to China, it was on a rural beach in Mexico. He did not kill the mother turtle. There were other holes with eggs and he didn't get those either.

The reporter then went into the little outdoor market place, like the outdoor fish markets in NYC, in Chinatown. There were piles and piles of these eggs for sale. They are expensive, a delicacy, and afforded only by the wealthier residents. But there was a great abundance of them.

They are called "egg poachers" and it is illegal. Some of these markets were beside the mayor's office, so it is not being enforced. However, it showed some armed guys in camo headed to the beach, and the reporter said they are beginning to enforce it. Sure they are @@

Okay, here's the deal. I'm not an idiot. If I was starving, I would certainly take the life of an animal for my survival, and I'm not a vegetarian anyway.

For some reason or other you guys have made me feel not quite so terrible about this. However. I would still like to give this guy a quick kick in his tender parts. Indeed I would. Taking them as they dropped from her body. Heartless. No respect for her whatsoever.

If you could have seen her little face...... when she laid her head on the sand. It was despair.

I love sea turtles, I really do. They are beautiful creatures. However, if it comes between a hungry child and a sea turtle, the child comes first.

Bigfatfurrytexan has it right. I see protests over animal causes all the time, but where are the protests over the boys in Afghanistan? What about the Mama's of those boys who are helpless to protect their young sons, and the heartache they must feel.

Sea turtle Mama's don't bond with their babies, and she probably laid her head in the sand because laying all those eggs was exhausting, not because she was aware someone was stealing her eggs. They lay their eggs then head back out to sea. It would have been sadder if it was a species that was protective over their eggs and raised their young.

Want to stop animal abuse? It needs to start with how we treat our own species. It's funny how people will turn a deliberate blind eye to a child who is being abused and taught nothing about love, then hail that child as a sick freak when because he neglects his dog. Maybe the sick freaks were the ones who could have prevented that dog from being neglected but showing a young child love, and that his life mattered and there for all lives matter. Teach a child that their life doesn't matter and it is going to be difficult for them to understand that the lives of other matter.

/steps off angry soapbox.

a reply to: valiant Yes, that is sick. Was unaware. Kinda similar to the veiled sadism of the machismo aspect of bullfighting.