Purposefully swerves to hit box turtle!

[Terry Allan Hall]

Not excusing Blake, but most of the people that live in areas where box turtles are still very common, consider them as common as spiders or snakes, and have no idea that they are long-lived creatures that take a long time to mature. They pretty much think of them as one might think of rodents. I know many people who swerve to kill ground squirrels. I've done it myself before in country where they are major agricultural pests.

I think the bad publicity will teach Blake a thing or two, and it'll be good for him, but in reality, swerving to hit what one considers vermin probably doesn't qualify someone as a bad person.

I don't like spiders, they give me the heeby-jeebies, and I have no problem killing them (although I kind of like the little jumping spiders). I guess in buddhism, I'm no different then Blake.

Steve

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.

Absolutely!

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

It sure does not qualify them as a good person, and it says alot about that persons general character.

Reminds me of my favorite Gandhi quote

 

[Jacqui]

I remember reading a study they did once using rubber snakes, turtles, ect.., I was rather eye opening to read the high percentage of American drivers who will swerve to hit an animal on the road.

It is amazing to me that any agency could get away with endangering motorists by conducting such a study.

I don't recall it being done by an "agency" for some reason I thought it was like for a college term paper perhaps.. Also as I recall it was on a well traveled, but not heavily traveled road. The "bait" (plastic animals) were not on the road proper as I recall, the motorists had to swerve to the shoulder to hit them. To me, that is not the researcher placing a motorist in danger, but rather the motorist placing themselves and those around them in danger. As you would expect, the snakes were ran over in a larger percent then the turtles. This was many years back, if I am remembering right, like 15 years.

---

Another time it was a gopher tortoise crossing the road near where I lived. He was a big, handsome guy. I picked him up and took him to the other side where he was headed, and he went on his way.

I about scared Jeff half to death, waking him from a sound sleep in the bed, when I did a quick stop in Florida to make sure a gopher tortoise made it across the road. She certainly gave me a bit of a shock seeing her, let alone watching her come so close to being hit by several cars. To this day, she is still the only gopher tortoise I have ever gotten to see in real life.

 

[blafiriravt]

And THIS, ladies and gentleman, is exactly how social networks make so much money. I'm going to start a twitter account right now just so I can follow the story!

---

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

I about scared Jeff half to death, waking him from a sound sleep in the bed, when I did a quick stop in Florida to make sure a gopher tortoise made it across the road. She certainly gave me a bit of a shock seeing her, let alone watching her come so close to being hit by several cars. To this day, she is still the only gopher tortoise I have ever gotten to see in real life.

Good job! I used to see them quite a bit back in Florida. Needless to say, they are very cool. And I love their burrows. Too bad humans and tortoises like the same real estate.

 

[Kerryann]

This is the snakes vs turtles video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA&feature=player_embedded

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

This is the snakes vs turtles video
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Well, looks like Blake Shelton is in that jerky 1% then. >:-(

 

[lisa127]

It sure does not qualify them as a good person, and it says alot about that persons general character.

Reminds me of my favorite Gandhi quote

In the first house we owned, we used to get mice that came in I believe through our enclosed breezeway. They of course would certainly qualify as vermin and we did not want them living in our home!! Often we would find them trapped in a corner by our dog or cat. You know what my husband would do? He would gently pick up the mouse in the palm of his hand and take him outside and release him. That is what a real man does. As opposed to purposely killing the animal, let alone one that has not even entered your home!

 

[Kerryann]

It sure does not qualify them as a good person, and it says alot about that persons general character.

Reminds me of my favorite Gandhi quote

In the first house we owned, we used to get mice that came in I believe through our enclosed breezeway. They of course would certainly qualify as vermin and we did not want them living in our home!! Often we would find them trapped in a corner by our dog or cat. You know what my husband would do? He would gently pick up the mouse in the palm of his hand and take him outside and release him. That is what a real man does. As opposed to purposely killing the animal, let alone one that has not even entered your home!

We kill nothing on purpose ourselves

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

In the first house we owned, we used to get mice that came in I believe through our enclosed breezeway. They of course would certainly qualify as vermin and we did not want them living in our home!! Often we would find them trapped in a corner by our dog or cat. You know what my husband would do? He would gently pick up the mouse in the palm of his hand and take him outside and release him. That is what a real man does. As opposed to purposely killing the animal, let alone one that has not even entered your home!

I am definitely in favor of animal welfare. However, I think it is justified to let a dog, cat, or ferret dispatch household pests.

 

[Jacqui]

That is about the same experiment as the written report I saw, but the video was a lot more fun.

 

[lisa127]

In the first house we owned, we used to get mice that came in I believe through our enclosed breezeway. They of course would certainly qualify as vermin and we did not want them living in our home!! Often we would find them trapped in a corner by our dog or cat. You know what my husband would do? He would gently pick up the mouse in the palm of his hand and take him outside and release him. That is what a real man does. As opposed to purposely killing the animal, let alone one that has not even entered your home!

I am definitely in favor of animal welfare. However, I think it is justified to let a dog, cat, or ferret dispatch household pests.

At times the cat did kill them. If we were home and saw it though, we prefer to let the mouse go free outdoors.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

At times the cat did kill them. If we were home and saw it though, we prefer to let the mouse go free outdoors.

Weren't you concerned that it would just reproduce and come back with more?

 

[lisa127]

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.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

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.

 

[lisa127]

I found out rabbits are not quite as smart. A couple of years ago a rabbit decided to build a nest right against the back of my house and I have two dogs!! My shih tzu ended up getting to two baby bunnies that year. Thankfully it hasn't happened since.

 

[CLMoss]

I could never kill anything. Well...maybe a fly or ants. I could not even read the first post of this thread. I just picked it up on the 5th page.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the first house we owned, we used to get mice that came in I believe through our enclosed breezeway. They of course would certainly qualify as vermin and we did not want them living in our home!! Often we would find them trapped in a corner by our dog or cat. You know what my husband would do? He would gently pick up the mouse in the palm of his hand and take him outside and release him. That is what a real man does. As opposed to purposely killing the animal, let alone one that has not even entered your home!
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lisa, your husband is a doll!


Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Purposefully-swerves-to-hit-box-turtle?page=5#ixzz224otfBlb

 

[dds7155]

Any one that would do that is just a loser he's just a loser with money

---

I Just Read Clmoss post and have to say mice are dfiferent,,i'm 6'4 and 250 and i will run from a mouse

 

[Kerryann]

That is about the same experiment as the written report I saw, but the video was a lot more fun.

My favorite part of that video was when the guy stopped to save the snake, realized it was rubber, and then stole it.

 

[Yvonne G]

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!