We got a phone call late at night about a week ago about a very large turtle crossing the road in town.
Of course when people say very large it can only be one thing. a Common Snapping Turtle.
Well when my boyfriend arrived at the scene the poor snapper had been run over. He brought it home so we could access the damages to his shell.
He had a complete split from his neck to his tail, and a split on his side where the top and bottom shell meet. It was very bad and the snapper was non responsive. If he made it through the night we would have started repairs to the shell...he did not make it through the night.
I would like to give the person out there the benefit of the doubt...ok maybe this person was driving and did not see the turtle, or thought it was just trash or something and just didnt have enough time to correct the wheel. It was night time after all.
But the realist inside me says no this was on purpose by a person thinking hes so cool and wants to run this turtle over for no other reason than to brag to people about it.
I dont get people...
this turtle was far from large, his shell measured about a foot and a half, maybe a 10 year old turtle. But big enough that driving over it in a vehicle would feel much like taking a speed bump at 40 mph.

That night I sent out an unkind facebook status update with the turtles picture on it. I got support from my friends that if this was on purpose what a shame.
I then got a private message from a guy saying he had pulled over and helped matt put the turtle in his car and was concerned and wanted an update on the snapper. I was surprised that this guy would see my staus and i was a little impressed when he said he was a reptile lover and he appreciated what we did by getting the snapper out of that situation. At least i take comfort knowing theres a nice reptile-friendly stranger out there.

I dont know who ever thought it was a cool idea to purposely run over animals on the road but karma will get them...its just not right.

R.I.P. Snapper