The Little Turtle Meets Animal Lovers

(Guangdong, China) Featured during the 2nd Annual Sea Life Ceremony at the Fumen Ocean Museum was the release of captured fish, shrimp and turtles to live free in the ocean. Once liberated, the marine creatures all swam for deep water. Well, almost all.

There was one small sea turtle which could not figure out which way to go. Each time it was taken to several dozen meters into the ocean and released, it turned around immediately and turned back to land. When it hit the beach, it wandered around aimlessly.

After several failures, the worker scrutinized the turtle carefully and found that it was normal except for a scratch on one leg. "Maybe it wants people to treat the leg before it leaves?" The workers speculated.

So they tried to throw the turtle into deeper waters. This time, the little turtle vanished from the sight of the spectators.

This incident illustrates one of the erroneous beliefs of animal lovers. That is, all too often they attribute human intellect and emotions to an animal with a tiny brain. In this case, a worker assumes that the turtle knows that medical care is available on land and therefore it refused to go into the ocean.

Nonetheless, upon consideration that the turtle needed medical attention, the workers decided to toss it into deeper water and it disappeared. Now, a snarky observer might opine that the incident is typical of a government-run health care system. A patient comes out of the water in need of health care and the system throws him into deeper water.

Heh, and there's more. It seems that the consensus is that the subject turtle was a Burmese land turtle and Burmese land turtles cannot swim. Therefore, it's quite understandable why the turtle kept coming out of the water. Unfortunately, emotional fervor prompted the animal lovers to do good, despite relevant facts, and they tossed the little turtle in deep water where it likely drowned.