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Are Turtles Crossing the Road Really a Threat?

Why drivers seem to target slow-moving, non-threatening little turtles is beyond understanding.

Don’t we all have a soft spot in our hearts for innocent, vulnerable, gentle creatures that do us no harm?

The same goes for snakes, which eat the rodent mice, rats, and chipmunks that do so much damage to our homes, crops, gardens, and vehicles.

Every spring and summer, turtles cross roads as they leave water bodies like rivers, ponds, lakes, and marshes, and seek out soft soil where they can lay their eggs, so that the next generation of their kind can continue their unimposing life cycle.  Yet every year, roadways are littered with dead and wounded turtles, many dying slowly in the baking hot sun.

Their crime is nothing more than appearing in front of humans behind the wheel of a machine.  Are so many of us really so homicidal or sadistic that we go out of our way to hurt, injure, and kill a little helpless animal?

The unfortunate, sad answer is Yes, a lot of drivers go out of their way to hit turtles with their cars.  You can simply look at where the turtles lie, crushed or wounded on the side of the road, where the car driver had to actually veer off the roadway to hit the helpless little thing.  What is really sad is that turtles take at least ten years to breed, so killing one or two (or stealing one or two) in a given area can doom or kill off the entire population there.

If you have compassion for turtles, you can watch these instructive videos below, where curious turtle-liking guys put a rubber turtle alongside some roads near their homes and generated some unhappy results, and where drivers get out to try and help injured turtles.

Bottom line is Yep, drivers went out of their way to run over the little rubber turtle.

Video 1:

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Video 4: