Purposefully swerves to hit box turtle!

[Jacqui]

No, not really. We lived in that house for 5 years. The amount of times we or the cat found mice I could count on one hand. And we would find one mouse, not multiple. I began to wonder if mice were smart enough to stay away from a house once they learned a cat lived there!! Had we had a bad problem with mice I suppose I would have been more inclined to allow the cat to take care of the problem.

Good point. Pests do tend to avoid homes with domestic hunters and guardians in them. That mouse was probably happy to give your house a wide berth after that close call.

We must have stupid mice in this area then, because even with our various prides of felines, the mice still come.

 

[Tccarolina]

I disagree. In my mind, swerving to purposely hit a living breathing creature does qualify someone as a bad person. It sure does not qualify them as a good person, and it says alot about that persons general character.

I guess I qualify as a bad person, then. I've intentionally run over living, breathing things.

Out of curiosity, what is the difference (in your mind) between killing what one considers a pest on the road and that same pest in ones house/living space?

I think the mindset of the person running over the animal is important here.

For example, everyone knows that a pet cat has value to someone else, so anyone who deliberately runs over a pet that they know belongs to someone is clearly showing total disregard for the concern/property of others, and getting a thrill out of causing harm/pain (whether to the animal or its owner).

On the other hand, if the same person feels they are dispatching a pest, and the cat is feral, living in a bird refuge, that is a different story. Some people who care deeply about wildlife would do this.

My point is that if the person is unaware of the inherent value of what they are running over, that is different than if they are aware, and do it anyway.

I have a coworker that runs over every snake he sees. He will go out of his way to do so. He sees them as vermin, and nothing I say will sway his mind. However, he is a fine, well-respected person in the community, and probably every one that knows him would say he is a good person. In the developing world, snakes are killed on sight for the same reason, they are viewed as dangerous and worth more dead than alive. I happen to really like snakes, and I appreciate their value, but I can also look through the other person's lenses and see how they see things differently.

I personally, do not accept that all living things are equal, and that life itself should be spared at any cost. I respect the rights of others who wish to catch and release household pests, but I don't hold the same views personally. A mosquito holds much less value than a house mouse, and a house mouse holds far less value than the neighbors cat.

Steve

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Out of curiosity, what is the difference (in your mind) between killing what one considers a pest on the road and that same pest in ones house/living space?

A pest outside, on the road, is doing absolutely nothing to you. It is merely trying to get from one side of a man made death trap to the other, maybe it's made it's burrow full of it's young on one side of the road, but has to regretfully cross the road every day to get to the best food sources.

Take a mouse for example. In the wild, this mouse is absolutely no threat to you or your family. Unless you trap it or it is in some way sick or injured, you will probably never get close enough to a wild mouse for it to really make much of a difference to you anyway. In your home, it's a completely different story, obviously.

For example, everyone knows that a pet cat has value to someone else, so anyone who deliberately runs over a pet that they know belongs to someone is clearly showing total disregard for the concern/property of others, and getting a thrill out of causing harm/pain (whether to the animal or its owner).

In the same respect, there are plenty of people out there that find a ton of value in wild animals, me being one of them. Feral cats are probably some of the biggest pests to humans that there are, and yet it's not okay to run one over because it may or may not belong to someone? What about the conservationists that dedicate their lives to research and rehabilitation of threatened species, I'm sure that one box turtle (that was more than likely a female filled with eggs) meant a hell of a lot more to them than a feral cat meant to anyone.

My point is that if the person is unaware of the inherent value of what they are running over, that is different than if they are aware, and do it anyway.

That is exactly what I was trying to get at in that last paragraph. EVERY animal holds a lot of value to someone out there. Instead of thinking "oh there's no way that this is someone's pet, so no one will miss this one in particular", they should be thinking about the little boy that just watched this turtle on his nature hike the day before, that was going to come out the next day to see if it's still there. Or the conservationist that was called by someone else who passed by the turtle in their car that was just getting in his/her car to come and relocate the pregnant female to a safer area. EVERYTHING has value to someone.

---

I really enjoyed the video. "Hey! I'm trying to do some science here!" and the guy tosses the rubber snake in the car and drives off!

I actually kind of feel bad for the people that were trying to rescue the animals... They should have been given gift cards or something

 

[Jacqui]

I'm sure that one box turtle (that was more than likely a female filled with eggs) meant a hell of a lot more to them than a feral cat meant to anyone.

On this one, you may be wrong. I have many feral cats that live around me and believe me, they all have value to me. I worry when they miss a feeding and mourn them, when they die. Now I also mourn the loss of a box turtle due to roadkill, but not in the same way. The cat I know, even if I will never be able to come within 10 feet of it, the turtle is not a personal emotional loss to me in the same way. I still regret the wasted life of any road kill, even the coons and opossums who on one level I dislike for their potential threat to my animals. On a side note, I also stop and check out road killed turtles, looking to see if they may have eggs that could still be viable.

 

[snaofreno]

Looks like Blake "I didn't just swerve" Shelton won Country Music's Entertainer of the Year award 2012. Karma is slow.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Looks like Blake "I didn't just swerve" Shelton won Country Music's Entertainer of the Year award 2012. Karma is slow.

One of the many "Award" shows that are rigged by the industry, long beforehand.

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

UGH! Well, I don't like Country music anyways, but STILL! Karma will just have to run into him when he's least expecting it!

 

[lovelyrosepetal]

Box turtles are protected in Oklahoma. He did not hit an eastern box turtle because they are not native here. What he hit was an ornate box turtle, a three toed box turtle or a water turtle. There are laws about how many you can acquire and not selling them but they are ran over all the time here. In defense of the driver, they are very hard to see because from a distance they look like small rocks and if you are going fast you usually will not notice that it is an animal. The guy is probably an idiot and should be more careful of any animal in the road. Having said that, I think that country singers are usually pretty decent people.

 

[Jessamy]

Pretty sure he said he was only joking. I would never date someone that said something like that as a joke, but he seems nice enough overall. Alot of people don't care much about other animals except dogs. I think it's more or equally as common than people like us who strongly empathize with all creatures.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Pretty sure he said he was only joking. I would never date someone that said something like that as a joke, but he seems nice enough overall. Alot of people don't care much about other animals except dogs. I think it's more or equally as common than people like us who strongly empathize with all creatures.

There's a couple Youtubes that tell a different story about Shelton and his "squeeze", Miranda Lambert...here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah_...5rISPfimwJx7aIFx9tKDsK7i5Bm6S83gvQ3Zgjx03w3q8