Saved a little wayward box turtle today

[rlditmars]

I'm not going to explain myself anymore but to say the place this turtle was is not a good place for it to be or it would not have been headed towards a very busy Street. And to help it cross to other side of the street was not an option, on the other side of the street is an apartment complex. There's just a small area with a grassy ditch surrounded by pavement ,apartment complexes and streets. Its natural habitat like many other animals is being destroyed by humans. It will be relocated to a place where I have taken many turtles before that I've rescued.

Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

Jellybean,
After looking at the pictures you provided it's a pretty safe bet that the turtle is over a decade old, maybe two. Most of its shell is devoid of pattern and much of the edges are rounded. It is not a young animal, meaning it has done just fine for a long time without any intervention from you. What Crow said is an absolute fact, whether you agree or not. Box turtles throughout their life rarely leave a 200 yard radius from the place they hatch. They know every inch of their territory by the time the reach the age of the turtle you have. You can do as you wish, but to ignore this fact and to place the animal in some other territory, will be to ensure the very thing you state your actions were preventing, death.

Because you wont be there to see it, doesn't mean it wont die. In fact, the odds of its survival are less than if you had just let it cross the road while you watched. At least if you had let it cross the road it stood a chance, and if it had been hit by a car its death would likely have been instantaneous. Your way, the death can come in any number of ways, most of which will be of longer duration and may involve suffering.

I'm not here to judge, just to educate. The decision is yours. Remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think.