Beach finds and dead things

I took pictures of some shells gathered from a couple different beaches on Nantucket but my camera (or me) is not producing good photos, but here's one I thought you'd appreciate...YUP! that's a baby snapping turtle carcass. It has it's front 'hand' around a bone that looks like it got stuck in it's throat....I like to collect dead things, I prefer it when it seems they died of natural causes...but I still like dried up dead things.

The possibility of how he died doesn't surprise me. There are inlets with bridges across that people throw chicken pieces out into the water whilst it is attached to a string so that the turtles can grab something to eat, but also to give us a show of themselves. Some are quite large and it is amazing to see them so close. Well, after boredom sets in, people leave the chicken attached, hanging from the bridge so the turtles can continue to feast, which seems like a very nice thing to do, I thought. Sometimes they are able to chew the chicken from the string...I'm thinking that might have happened to this little one. I have to admit, I know this because I participated, not seeing any harm in it...BUT! I won't be doing it again. If you really think about it...there's not a way that these turtles would get themselves a chicken without human intervention. We are selfish and stupid sometimes.

I was at a picnic recently, with a pond nearby and a 14 year old boy got himself a frog...stabbed right through it with a sharpened stick. He held it in front of me all proud of himself that he caught it for his friend that wanted one. I asked, "oh, is he going to eat it?" (I don't get as horrified if it's not a wasted kill) and he said he didn't know. The frog was of good size, his poor little limbs just splayed out....I said, "so, you killed it just for the fun of it?" I told him how I thought it was not right, that he shouldn't be proud of himself and that it was just MEAN, just MEAN. I think it was a look of shame that came across his face (I hope so) or a "I gotta get myself out of here before this lady goes crazy on me." I was so sad for the frog that was just living his life. I told this story to a male friend and he said, "he's a boy, that's what they do." I said, "it doesn't make it right, to kill something just for the fun of it." We have to teach our children to respect living creatures. Apparently, he had not learned this.

Have a great day.