Experiment to help turtles has eerie result

[King Fluffs]

I've sadly seen people who are driving speed up when old age pensioners are trying to cross the road.

It's not quite the same, but still rather dark.

[Technocrat]

In reference to the comment by 'glorybebe'. I would say people who deliberately run over and kill wild animals on the road are themselves 'lower life forms'!

[highdesert50]

Sad. No empathy. Animal abusers are more likely to commit crimes against people as well as property crimes. Wonder what would have happened if the turtle decoy had been spiked with nails? Perhaps some one trial learning leading to behavioral changes?

[Technocrat]

In reference to the comment by 'glorybebe'. I would say people who deliberately run over and kill wild animals on the road are themselves 'lower life forms'!

[Technocrat]

In reference to the comment by 'glorybebe': I would say people who deliberately run over and kill wild animals on the road are themselves 'lower life forms'!

[joewhatever]

What do you expect? People eat meat so they have little respect for other animals. Look at how we treat each other too.

[Mr Right Wing]

http://news.yahoo.co...-182457207.html

A senior at an agricultural college ,did an experiment to help turtles ,and made a shocking discovery .

Box turtles are in decline,.They frequently die while trying to cross roads traveled by cars.

The student took a rubber turtle ,and placed it in the road ,to see if he could come to a conclusion ,about a way to help them survive this behavior .

What he discovered ,is that people swerved ,to purposely hit the turtle .

In an hour,at least seven cars purposely hit the turtle,while others tried to hit it ,but missed .

The conclusions were that humans just prove they are superior .... ????

My conclusion ,as always ,is PEOPLE SUCK . Just this girl's opinion .

We've all done the road kill thingy muwhahahah!

[glorybebe]

Sad. No empathy. Animal abusers are more likely to commit crimes against people as well as property crimes. Wonder what would have happened if the turtle decoy had been spiked with nails? Perhaps some one trial learning leading to behavioral changes?

Then there would have been charges of mischief if not something more severe.

[Ad hoc]

Not nice, but not as shocking as I was expecting

7 out of 267 drivers = about 2.6%

The second study 1 in 50 = 2%

Others apparently seemed to swerve and miss, but it's hard to draw conclusions from that, no? Some might have done it absent mindedly then decided against it at the last sec, or thought it was something else until close, or some other reason...

Anyway, I can't understand the mindset of people who do this deliberately -_- Something wrong with their empathy circuit

Edited December 29, 2012 by ad hoc

[xYlvax]

Some people can be so cruel.. too bad they're not the turtle. lol

[Agnostist]

Well that's bit sad for an innocent animal which is harmless.This just shows that some people think that humans are superior than other organisms in the world but u know u wouldn't stand a chance against something like a tiger even if u are very intelligent .I've heard stories about people burning black cats in the road during halloween thinking that the black cats are related to witches.Is this the height of animal cruelty or pure stupidity?.

[MissMelsWell]

I would never run over a turtle intentionally. Never! That's just cruel.

But it does bring to mind a rather funny story from several years ago. My husband at the time and myself were driving in the city, and were stopped at a stoplight. Across the intersection we could see a momma duck with her 14 chicks trying to cross the busy street! We fipped our hazard lights on, dashed out in traffic stopping everyone and proceeded to help momma and the chicks get across safely and down an embankment into a parking lot. We looked like a couple of IDIOTS running around in a 5 lane street herding ducks. Don't care though. Once momma and the chicks were safe in the lot, we gathered them all up into a pet carrier in our truck, and deposited them on the Microsoft campus down near one of many ponds on the Redmond campus. I saw them several times that year until they flew off for the winter. haha.

[A rather obscure Bassoon]

I always put them in safe place,they get squished all the time here in summer.

Edited December 29, 2012 by shaddow134

[WoIverine]

Wow, if I saw someone run over an animal on purpose, I would drag them from their car and beat them.

Edited December 29, 2012 by WoIverine

[tlsmith1138]

"They aren't thinking, really," he said. "It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time. It is the dark side of human nature." That, my friends, is called self deception. They think about it. They like it.

[Spiritwalker]

I was taught to honor life in the outdoors. If you are not going to eat it leave it alone. Even those creatures used for food we would thank it for giving its life to feed us. All life put here by our Creator was put here for a purpose. All this experiment has shown is how removed we are from Nature. In the end these empty souls will find without Her we all are dead.

[WoIverine]

I've actually stopped my car and moved 3 or so to the other side of the road. In other instances, I've taken two (at different times)...one in a box, the other in an empty trashcan to a nearby lake and let them go there. There's a lot of random animal life where I live, for some reason many turtles and armadillos decide to make a break for it...unfortunately it's always by a populated road, or intersection it seems.

Edited December 29, 2012 by WoIverine

[Star of the Sea]

That's so awful, poor little turtles Years ago and very late at nIght I was dropping my friend home when I noticed a hedgehog trying to get up on to the kerb but was having difficulty. I stopped the car and went over to help it and to my surprise this little hedgehog had a yoghurt pot stuck on it's head and God knows how long it must of been there bumping up against the kerb. Poor little thing. I lifted it to safety and left it in a garden to trot off happily.I hate seeing squished hedgehogs and animals left dead in the road

[JGirl]

wow that's really dispicable!

i feel the same about people who kill bugs for no reason.

[The Silver Thong]

I have two of them and why would people do that like really Get the plate numbers and charge them with animal cruilty or what ever law fines them,

[Ad hoc]

It has to be said though,

It's slightly mysterious in evolutionary terms why we have quite so much empathy as humans, to the point that it extends to all sorts of other species. Not a courtesy often extended by wild animals to each other. I'm guessing a lot of it is related to the domestication of animals giving an advantage, but perhaps a lot of it is learned... consider the Chinese in the Dog & Cat meat trade... those involved would ask why they should have empathy for another species. They can't all be psychos tho...

I think empathy for your environment is something natural though, so maybe your empathy is 'activated' in relation to a certain thing rather than exactly learned.

Edited December 29, 2012 by ad hoc

[The Silver Thong]

Not so much empathy to other animals but that we are the direct cause of there extinctions and sufferings. No matter the species. When I start hearing of box turtles behind the wheel of a car aiming at humans I will be right mad and game on errrrr.

[spartan max2]

i feel like most of the people who ran the turtle over were teenagers lol

[little_dreamer]

I was driving on a country road when the car in front of me stopped. A man got out of the car and moved a turtle off the road. So not everyone is evil. I didn't even see the turtle before this happened.

[Simbi Laveau]

We've all done the road kill thingy muwhahahah!

Says the guy who owill learn ..karma is a b**** .