I have received some very interesting feedback from visitors, forum members other blog readers regarding my previous post on the petition to persuade TESCO to stop selling turtles in China.
I do not claim myself to be an expert in this matter because reality is, I am not. I am merely a student who happens to be working with a species of freshwater turtles that are listed as Critically Endangered in The World Conservation Union, and since I am writing my thesis, I do have a fair amount of facts in my head as I write this..
One of my commentators argued:
I’m not convinced commercial cultivation will necessarily further endanger the species, my common sense tells me the opposite is true (and I believe I have read something to that effect), but I stand corrected if anyone can prove otherwise.
Some points to consider:
- The softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis) take between 5-6 years to mature and reproduce. The amount of people who consume turtles increase exponentially every year (mostly in China) so the turtles that are cultured would NOT be enough to feed the market. So guess where more turtles are brought in from..?
- If the turtles are made so readily available in the markets, it would vet the public’s appetite and they would buy and consume things that they do NOT normally do.
The same commentator also brought up a very interesting issue which I had noticed earlier:
If the issue here is the inhumane method of which the turtle is killed, the correct response should be to implement more humane method of killing the animal, rather than banning the sale.
By the time a more humane method of killing the animal is implemented and enforced, there would be no more turtles left in the wild. Which will bring us back to the commercial cultivation of the turtles *points up*
A forum member asked me this:
Isn’t boiling alive the same way lobsters are cooked? If it’s acceptable for lobsters, why not turtles? They aren’t dissimilar creatures.
Frankly speaking, I’m not sure how lobsters are cooked but I work with turtles. I’ve dissected dead turtles and I know how much strength is needed to cut open a 2-year-old turtle’s plastron (the underside). It takes a very strong person to cut through the plastron, another strong person to hold the carcass while the first person tries to completely remove the plastron.
Let’s put it this way, would you still eat a chicken if it was killed in such a way?
But of course, the most important point here is that the turtles are becoming extinct if we do not take the necessary steps to conserve them. The lobsters probably are too. In fact, everything will go if we do not consume/take sustainably. The seas can’t be producing lobsters and turtles for us forever, you know.. In fact, Mother Nature just can’t take the pressure anymore..
Yvonne helped spread the message in her post — Yvonne: “I would stop shopping at TESCO until they stop selling animals in stores. TESCO must realize the Power of Comsumers allow us to decide when a business entity had crossed morality lines.”
One of her readers said:
If chickens/ducks are not bred intensively, and somebody sets up a trust against those who eat chickens/ducks, what happens? Question is, what makes tortoise or any animal special? Just because they are going extinct doesn’t quite justify it. We can breed various animals after all…It’s just the matter of whether we do it or not in large numbers.
To put it in simple terms, I’d like to think that chickens/ducks/cows are farm animals and that they are bred for food. And I guess that makes them different from turtles. Turtles are NOT originally bred for food. Just like how rhinos aren’t bred for food.
If the fact that an animal species that is going to become extinct doesn’t warrant people to stop consuming it, I wonder what would??
Another of Yvonne’s commentator sounded pretty rude to me. He said:
Big deal. They still sold them turtles everywhere even if TESCO doesn’t.
However rude he may sound to me, and probably to you too, he did have a point there. Truth is, a lot of people are selling turtles in every corner of the world. Why? Because the turtles can NOT only be sold as food, they can be canned, their carapace (shell) can be made souvenirs, their fat can be used to make soap, their skin leather. In fact, every part of the turtle can be used.
And he was also right when he said “big deal” (albeit a tad sarcastically) because truth is, the excessively killing of the turtles could really drive them to extinction. We may not feel it right now, but ask your parents about the leatherback turtles. I’m sure they had seen at least one in Terengganu in the 1970s or 1980s. But if you asked me whether the leatherback turtles are coming back to nest, I’m sorry, they aren’t.
So you see, TESCO may be a UK company, and the practice of killing and eating turtles may be a norm in China, but if we could convince TESCO to stop selling turtles in their chains, we would definitely make some difference in the lives of THOSE turtles. And imagine what happens if a big brand name like TESCO stops selling turtles and adopt a more sustainable approach, many other smaller chains would follow suit and that, my friend, would make a hell of a difference!
So pleaseeee, if you haven’t done so, sign the petition to persuade TESCO to stop selling live turtles in China.
