This is a story close to my heart. I live at the Jersey Shore. Every June and July, female turtles creep from the bay and go in search of high ground to lay their eggs. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them never make it. Their journey takes them across paved roadways, where many are squished. I’ve seen them.
Research by two young men show that a certain percentage of the turtle killings are intentional.
Nathan Weaver, a student at Clemson University placed a plastic turtle in the road near his campus. In the course of one hour, seven out of 267 vehicles, 2.62 percent, swerved in order to hit the turtle. Read:
Clemson student’s turtle project takes a dark twist, on CharlotteObserver.com.
A psychology professor quoted in the story explained the intentional killings as “the dark side of human nature.” He said,
“They aren’t thinking, really. It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time.”
I think the good professor is wrong. I think Weaver was observing sociopathic behavior. Experts estimate that 1 percent to 4 percent of the population are sociopaths. Well, the 2.62 percent of drivers who swerved in order to kill the turtles fit right into that range.
Mark Rober, a NASA engineer, conducted a similar experiment using a rubber turtle, snake and tarantula. He observed 1,000 cars, and 6 percent of of drivers intentionally ran over the animals.
Turtles were hit 1 percent of the time and snakes 1.8 percent—again tracking with the estimated number of sociopaths in society. Tarantulas, however, were hit the most, by far. If I were to interpret this, I’d guess that the tarantula-killers perceived them as dangerous.
Here’s a video of Mark Rober’s Roadkill Experiment.
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/k-Fp7flAWMA]
Loved this video Donna! I agree, the turtle killers were getting a power trip by killing a helpless and slow animal.
My exspath would stop to save animals that were hurt, but only because it was part of his mask. He made sure that everyone knew what kind deed he’d done and he’d spend hours railing against the horrible people who would hit animals and not stop, not care. Then he’d tell me about how evil everyone else was. Once he said, “I hate humanity!”
I don’t doubt the results of this study in the least…running over critters here on the roads is a “sport” except for deer and that does too much damage to the vehicle and most people avoid it if they can.
In texas you can buy ceramic armadillos with tire tracks over them, and just about everyone TRIES to hit them, or even drive OVER them as the animals automatically JUMP when scared so will JUMP up and kill themselves on the bottom of the vehicle as the vehicle rolls over them, even if the tires don’t get them.
There have been some studies showing the “macho” mentality of many males when they get behind the wheel…thus “road rage” and other things that people who are normally “non violent” engage in when behind the wheel of a vehicle. Maybe turtle murder is one of those “macho” things.
Great article.
What’ makes the turtles susceptible to being a victim – just BEING THERE – can be different than what makes US susceptible to being victimized by a spath.
We might go running to a therapist saying, “holy shit, I think I was victimized by a spath” and then we end up learning not only about SPATHS but OURESLVES.
Check this out.
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/07/21/how-to-decide-how-much-to-tell-about-yourself-on-your-blog/
Athena
Donna, you might be interested in having a look at the Steubenville, OH rape case that’s just now reaching the national media spotlight. Two local 16y.o. boys are charged with raping a minor female who was incapacitated after consuming alcohol at a party that took place last August. The two football players dragged her from party to party like a rag doll. That’s not the worst of it. Other people at the parties, some on the same football team as the alleged rapists, took photos and video and posted them on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube but never bothered to help the victim. They thought it was hilariously funny that this girl was being violated, possibly even urinated on while she was passed out. The lack of empathy is just astounding. I watched a youtube video today of these boys laughing and cracking jokes, and the first thing that came to mind was “sociopaths”.
Omigawd, Donna, what a GREAT article and it really, REALLY speaks about the spaths that I’ve known.
The exspath used to get very frustrated when I’d ask him to stop the car so I could move a turtle out of the road to the other side. I used to stop for snakes, too…I don’t want to hit ANYthing because wildlife doesn’t understand motor vehicles. They understand predators, but they don’t understand motor vehicles.
DawnG, apparently, we have a whole generation of disordered young people out there. YouTube can be a cesspool of cruelty and disordered behaviors.
Brightest blessings
DawnG:
That is absolutely awful!!!! Makes me sick.
Dawn G I sent donna an article about this very case today…that made my skin crawl and my blood run cold. Yea, sociopaths, no empathy for this young woman’s pain. in a town so small everyone knows everyone. The whole thing makes me want to PUKE!
Oxy, this has all been taking place less than 20 miles away from my hometown. The local media coverage was pretty basic and didn’t dig for any real information. A former Steubenville resident has been capturing and posting these photos and tweets on her blog since it all started, and she and 25 commenters were sued by the parents of one of the kids involved in “slut shaming” the victim online. All these months later Anonymous starts hacking websites and posting information and now it blew sky high.
Yes, it’s a small city. There are about 18,000 people. I don’t think everyone knows everyone, but probably everyone knows someone who is related to someone. 😉
I think CNN replays AC360 at 10pm EST tonight. They did some good reporting on the case.
The New York Times also did a good article back in mid-December. The head football coach threatened the reporter for daring to question why all the players involved hadn’t been benched for the season.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/sports/high-school-football-rape-case-unfolds-online-and-divides-steubenville-ohio.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Dawn, that is so disturbing, but not “unexpected”—I think our culture is becoming more crude, crass and unfeeling. It makes me sad…very sad.
Tonight I am watching “Rock Center” and that girl who was the 19 year old intern that had the on going affair with JFK (very similar to Clinton’s affair with MOnica) They mentioned the “sense of ENTITLEMENT” that JFK had and the many many women, not just this one girl…RED FLAGS…power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Yea, and Penn State…the Catholic church…cover up…hush it up…pretend it didn’t happen.
One time my X was driving kinda fast, as we topped the hill two little racoons ran across the road, he didnt slow down or try to swerve, just ran right over them, he never flenched or said a word. I was horrified. But of course we were not talkin or he was already mad about something.. I remember gettin chill’s and a tingling feeling on the back of my neck. He didnt swerve to hit them, but if I had been driving I think I could of avoided them. For the most part he seemed to like animals, my dog’s, his cat’s..but he abandoned his cat’s when he moved in with me, when I found out about it I insisted we go get them and soon 3 cat’s became 15..he was good about feeding them etc..but when he left here he left his cat’s..I dunno..I dont think he would ever hurt an animal on purpose..I also realize he loved my dog’s because I loved my dog’s..mirror mirror on the wall? oh well.