I could probably write a great deal about the circumstances surrounding this picture, but to summarize, here's what I posted on Facebook about afterwards:
Oh no. These guys were walking around town trying to sell this poor, beautiful sea turtle. I tried to negotiate with them...the youngest one here actually understood what I was saying and I almost convinced him to get in the truck and drive it back to the water if I gave him $20, but the older guy said no, it had to be $50. He said they had been keeping it in a pool for 2 weeks and had been carrying it around all day-- the bottom of her shell was soft, she probably wasn't going to make it anyway (who knows if she even had a chance to lay her eggs...). In the end, they ran away when a police officer started walking down the street. I am so upset now. This place is tough sometimes.
I was really disturbed by this. I wasn't mad at these guys, exactly, but it was quite painful to see this magnificent sea turtle, suffering like this, thinking about whether she was pregnant with eggs, what she had been through. I wish I could have done something to help that animal-- or maybe just not seen the poor creature at all.
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