Have you ever run over a turtle?
Odd question, I know. However, a student at Clemson University conducted a study to see the darker side of human nature. He placed a realistic looking fake turtle in the road and watched as most drivers deliberately tried to run over the animal. The student also cited many friends who thought that running over the slow creature was funny. His professor wasn’t surprised, saying, “They seem so helpless and cute. I want to stop and help them. My kids want to stop and help them. My wife will stop and help turtles no matter how much traffic there is on the road. I can’t understand the idea why you would swerve to hit something so helpless as a turtle.”
Would you run over a turtle crossing the road, or would you stop to move it out of harm’s way?
Tags: Clemson University, college, college student, Human Nature, news, study, teen lifestyle, turtles
My family rescues about 30 turtles a year from the road- we are almost always willing to run through traffic to save them. Now we have about 19 turtles in our pond so we’ve been relocating some rescues elsewhere. So far, our most exciting rescue was a 14 inch snapping turtle that almost bit my mom’s thumb when she took him out of the car. Two years later, we had a baby dinosaur crawling through the grass. It’s all about the karma! Besides, if your turtles stick around, they will lay eggs and baby turtles are soooooo fun! They aren’t remotely shy so you can just pick them up out of the water and play with them.