Awareness
Sea Turtle Who Was Stepped on and Beaten for Selfies in Lebanon Is Now Recovering
Sometimes, the cruelty and the stupidity of modern people reach truly monstrous dimensions. Lately, we have heard many stories that involved groups of people who harmed and even killed marine animals, and for what reason? In order to take selfies.
This selfie thing is not stupid or ridiculous anymore – it’s sad, tragic and dangerous. If humans have come to the point when they have fun harming and killing other living beings just to take stupid photos and upload them on Facebook and Instagram, then our civilization is probably doomed.
Last week, such kind of incident happened on a beach near Beirut, Lebanon. A group of people dragged a loggerhead sea turtle from the water and stepped on her to take selfies. As if it was not enough for the poor animal, those morons also beat her on the head with sticks…
As a result of this barbaric act of violence, the turtle suffered serious injuries and had cracked bones on her head. Luckily, the animal was rescued and taken care of by the charity group Animals Lebanon, which “is assisting the Ministry of Agriculture and Civil Defense to make sure this sea turtle does not die from this unnecessary, avoidable, and illegal cruelty.”
In fact, loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is an endangered species. To prevent the decline of the species’ population, conservation efforts are made all over the world. During the nesting season, activists and volunteers search the coastline for nests to protect the nesting and feeding sites.
Without the help of the activists from Animals Lebanon, the turtle would have probably died like that unfortunate baby dolphin in Argentine or the shark in the Dominican Republic. It so sad to see such stories pop up more and more often, and no one is doing anything about it. On the other hand, I’m not sure if it’s really possible to change and prevent such incidents since people don’t even realize that they are doing something wrong. This is what is the most frightening about it.
All this behavior is a product of the modern culture and the social media which promote the cult of ignorance, narcissism and the need to show off. As a result, we are driven by the most primitive emotions and become less conscious. We cease to think for ourselves, become unable to feel empathy for other living beings and refuse to take responsibility for our actions. And unless we wake up from this real-life zombie hell, humanity is doomed and will probably end up as a dystopian society like the ones we have seen in numerous sci-fi movies.
I hope that this and other stories of animal harassment will make you think.
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