The turtle nesting season has recently begun and various local environmental groups are, at present, striving to prepare for our reptilian guests by ridding our beaches of all rubbish and other impediments. Not only that, they want to educate, re-educate and remind those who wish to visit our leathery friends in their natural habitats on how to be gracious hosts.
There's one problem that keeps cropping up time and time again and there are numerous Facebook and Twitter photos that prove it. (Sadly those are just the pictures that make it onto the Internet). You see, while some of us may see a beautiful creature in all its splendour and feel a sense of honour as it comes to our shores, others see a magical riding animal awaiting mounting.Why some people feel the need to haul themselves on the backs of majestic (endangered as well I might add) creatures, I will never know.
A turtle is not, by the furthest stretch of the imagination, a beast of burden. Nor are they some kind of mechanical rodeo bull (or horse) where the winner is he who holds on the longest. Flesh and blood, nerve endings and pain receptors, perhaps even feelings and emotions, are all under that shell. Perhaps my being an animal enthusiast has skewed my opinion somewhat but the excitement of wanting to straddle a giant, pregnant turtle, labouring through the sand (almost painfully it seems) is lost on me.
Maybe the Emperor Valley Zoo should develop a petting zoo within the zoo programme to fulfil whatever emptiness people may feel inside that causes them to molest such amazing wild animals.One thing's for sure, though, not only is it illegal to wound, kill or capture but to molest by any method as well (under the Conservation of the Wildlife Act). Imagine someone or something standing, sitting or riding you while you are in labour.
Talib mohammed
El Socorro