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Humans are aggressive critters by nature I think. We basically fought our way to the top of the food chain by devising weapons (we're a rather weak creature on our own). We're not the only aggressive creature around, I've watched bobcats torturing their prey to death. I've found many a beaver chewed up by other beavers, because of disputes over territory (normally they survive but still). But you'd think people wouldn't feel a need to crush a little turtle for no reason.
I don't like harming animals unless I have no other choice. Example: Even though I'm afraid of stinging insects, if they're trapped in the house or car, I usually try to get them through an outdoor opening so they can go free.
For someone to deliberately and knowingly aim for the turtle seemed bizarre until I read the article re: Southern author Pat Conroy's, The Great Santini, where the fighter pilot father character - thinking others in car are asleep- purposely runs them over. This is an example of stupid cultural conditioning (youths thinking they will replicate something they read or heard about due to 'southern lore'), and an example, of perhaps, what the author was trying to convey about war in an alliterative sense i.e. the turtles were helpless 'people' and fighter pilots have to be conditioned via training to not think about the innocent that may die as result of their actions, and rather, that having been a fighter pilot it enables the mind of the individual to want to extend the behavior to other venues and realms. i.e. the indiscriminant killer mindset, hence the turtles as example in the novel.
Two , I wonder how many of the drivers that hit the turtles were actually paying attention to their driving? The article says, he placed them on a busy road near college campus, so unless he had a video also to register what the driver reaction was (if they recognized object in the road) - who knows how many were 'distracted' drivers - texting, adjusting music, simply not paying attention.
Personally, I would never hit something purposely, but if it is really a 'busy road' and a potentially dangerous location to avoid whatever is in the road (based on traffic conditions), I sure am not going to crash my car and the turtles shown in article seem small so I could understand an occasional actual 'accident'.
How do we know based on the information given in the article that some drivers were not distracted by another auto in traffic roadway, or the student 'researcher' off to the side of road making his observations? The old research conundrum of measuring / observing something altering the behavior and data collected. Perhaps some fellow students knew and were playing games with his research collection?
Now, while I think those who deliberately drive over turtles need to be educated and reconditioned (images of A Clockwork Orange come to mind *sarcasm*) I would like to take ALL the distracted drivers I encounter on a regular basis (cell phone yapping away, texting etc...who drift into my lane or fail to pay attention to traffic signals and road conditions) and introduce their forehead to the dashboards until they adjust their behavior.
I find the disregard and consideration of drivers to PAYING attention to the road, traffic, conditions etc... to engage in what is most likely unimportant communication while operating a motor vehicle weighing a few thousand pounds and putting other peoples lives at risk to be extremely maddening, but that's likely subject of a different discussion.
Must be a slow news day, because if one looks at the statistics of this "study", of the 267 vehicles, only 7 drivers made the effort of trying to hit the fake turtle. Or just 2%. That means 98% (YES YOU READ THAT CORRECT: 98%) of humans did not hit the turtle.
I wonder if there was any thought or consideration by this university student of the potential hazard this 'study' could have caused? What would have happened if people swerved to avoid the fake turtle only to hit another vehicle going the other way. Then what? The student would have been held liable. I remember when I was 8 or 9 I thought it would be fun to put large snowballs in the street and watch cars run over them. My Dad saw what I was doing and was not too happy about what I was doing. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Nevertheless, I did not do that again.
I will always attempt not to hit an animal when it's feasible. There are instances when it's not advisable to swerve because of the potential risk. For instance, it's advisable for you to hit the deer rather than swerve to avoid because you could be charged with reckless driving. And the last time checked, animals are poor witnesses as it's easier to prove that you hit a deer (or animal) than prove that you swerved to avoid hitting one.
I"ve often wondered how all those dead animals, road kills, end up on the side of the road. I tend to think I'm about the only one that stops and tosses them off the road, so the birds can have at them safely.
My point is, maybe people hit them on the side of the road, I don't know. I don't want to know that people do that.
In South Carolina author Pat Conroy's semi-autobiographical novel "The Great Santini," a fighter-pilot father squishes turtles during a late-night drive when he thinks his wife and kids are asleep. His wife confronts him, saying: "It takes a mighty brave man to run over turtles."
The father denies it at first, then claims he hits them because they are a road hazard. "It's my only sport when I'm traveling," he says. "My only hobby."
That hobby has been costly to turtles.
It takes a turtle seven or eight years to become mature enough to reproduce, and in that time, it might make several trips across the road to get from one pond to another, looking for food or a place to lay eggs. A female turtle that lives 50 years might lay over 100 eggs, but just two or three are likely to survive to reproduce, said Weaver's professor, Rob Baldwin.
For someone to deliberately and knowingly aim for the turtle seemed bizarre until I read the article re: Southern author Pat Conroy's, The Great Santini, where the fighter pilot father character - thinking others in car are asleep- purposely runs them over. This is an example of stupid cultural conditioning (youths thinking they will replicate something they read or heard about due to 'southern lore'),
Two , I wonder how many of the drivers that hit the turtles were actually paying attention to their driving? The article says, he placed them on a busy road near college campus, so unless he had a video also to register what the driver reaction was (if they recognized object in the road) - who knows how many were 'distracted' drivers - texting, adjusting music, simply not paying attention.
Let's see...
- Clemson U (SC college, correct?) based study;
- southern author making that "joke" in his book;
- reading that study coming from my local college about people purposely running over black snakes (I'm in NC);
-two encounters come immediately to mind with more following behind them - one when I was driving on the road next to my house and stopped to put an enormous, yellow-bellied slider from the road back into the pond next to the road and the southern bitty yelled at me for doing it telling me "shuddah ranned it ova!! it's eetin mah feeeeish!" - my husband clipped her purdy little hedge before I could say a word and then going to the local garden store to find natural pest control (bug) for the garden and the next southern bitty telling us she looooves spring rains because it "drowns all the baby bunnies and when it doesn't rain she has to do it herself." my stunned face was enough to stop her from blathering on further about her cruel hobbies.
- police at my job bragging about using domestic animals as target practice - not even wild creatures for chrissakes but domestic ones!!!
Never encountered soooo many people in rapid succession with such a flagrant disregard for critter life. It's definitely a human nature problem exacerbated by a cultural problem. Although I personally don't prefer to include behaviors like that as "cultural" - if cruelty is a cultural thing, then the sooner your "culture" is extinct, the better.
no more cruel than your cat.
natural born killers. with religion there is a chance of resisting our natural urge to kill others when they get in our way. every once in awhile we collectively go nuts and have a war, resulting in famines and plagues. this reduces population got to do it, bek we breed like rats. this cycle is in our DNA
I wonder if there was any thought or consideration by this university student of the potential hazard this 'study' could have caused? What would have happened if people swerved to avoid the fake turtle only to hit another vehicle going the other way. Then what? The student would have been held liable. I remember whenI was 8 or 9 I thought it would be fun to put large snowballs in the street and watch cars run overthem. My Dad saw what I was doing and was not too happy about what I was doing. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Nevertheless, I did not do that again.
I had forgotten about this -
When I was a kid, my sister and I made a fake "animal" out of a paper bag stuffed with some leftover noodles and various squirts of sauces like ketchup, bbq, mustard, with the outside covered with fake fur and a l-o-n-g tail... and not one car would run over that thing. Not a one. Somehow our dad figured out what we were doing and put an end to it...
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