Turtle turned into Figure 8, By 6-pack plastic rings

Turtle turned into Figure 8, By 6-pack plastic rings

by Liv | Published on June 16th, 2006, 2:40 pm | Science

I will admit there was a time in my life where I had a flagrant disregard for the environment and nature. My assumption was that if it came from the earth, then its just going back to the earth, right? Wrong. Take for instance those 6 pack plastic rings we've been told for years to cut before we throw away, since birds and other animals can get their little heads stuck in them, and have a permanent necklace.
No biggie right, If the dumb duck is that darn stupid, maybe he deserves to wear a soda pop ring around his head for awhile. But what if the ring caused permanent disfigurement, and a life of disability and pain? This Video purports just that. It's a turtle that crawled into a soda pop ring many years ago, and grew into a figure 8 because of the castrating effects.

Effective now, I'm cutting my rings.

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Chance get's custody of the class pet for the weekend. "Putt" who is currently sitting on the computer table, is the Kindergarten's pet turtle. I'm tempted to go buy some acrylic paint and put a racing strip down his back in bright Yellow, a couple edelbrock stickers on the shell, and put a helmet on his head just for laughs. The darker side of me wants to pretend like I've ate the turtle and watch a class full of Kindergarteners deal with realty....

Okay... that would be really mean.

Flashing LED's on the turtle shell, then?

There has got to be something fun to do with Mr Putt....

UPDATE: Found Me a great Turtle Recipe!

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Materials:
750g soft shells and claws of the soft-shelled turtle
100g streaky pork
25g mushrooms soaked in water
100g garlic

1. Preparations: Slice the soft shells and claws of the soft-shelled turtle. Cut the streaky pork into 2 pieces.
2. Heat oil in a wok till 7-fold hot, drop in garlic, stir-fry and remove, drop in the shells and claws of the soft-shelled turtle, stir-fly, when there is no water left, drop in streaky pork, scallion and ginger, mushrooms and cooking wine, stir-fry, pour in water, bring to the boil, then braise over a medium heat till soft.
3. Pick out the scallion ginger, and streakly pork. Put the soft shelled turtle on a plate. Boil the soup stock until concentrated, season, then pour over the shells and claws.

Thank you for posting this, it has made a big difference to me and my kids.

I'm old enough to remember when you could buy little red-eared slider turtles at Rose's, Woolworth's and many other 5&10 stores back about forty years ago. Sadists at the turtle hatcheries (?) would sometimes paint flowers and other drivel on their shells thinking it made them more attractive. Unfortunately, the turtles shells grow continuously but the paint (probably lead-based oil) was inflexible causing horrific distortions to the shells within a matter of months. Then the powers-that-be determined these pretty little turtles were a reservoir of salmonella and effectively banned their sale within the US of A. I'm sure most of them probably starved anyway considering the so-called "turtle food" most places sold was probably better suited for goldfish.

But concerning eating turtles, I feel led to tell y'all about the only experience I've had with eating turtle and it was a good'ern. Back in the early 80's I worked for a large wholesale industrial supply house that was a Snapper lawn mower distributor (no pun intended) for Northeast Tennessee and SW Virginia. We had an in-house repair center that did warranty work on the Snapper mowers that we sold. Jim A., the guy over the repair center was a real character known for cutting up and pulling over-the-top pranks on the other employees, especially the girls that worked in the offices. The large warehouse facility we worked in was only about 200 feet from a rather large creek. One morning upon clocking in, Jim A. was standing there by the time clock with a large basket complete with red & white-checkered cloth with what looked like a beautiful basket of fried chicken. He told us guys that it wasn't chicken but snapping turtle. He'd trapped a large one the previous day down in the creek, butchered it, breaded it and deep fried it early that morning before coming to work. Many of the guys that worked in the warehouse section hunted and fished and were game to try anything, including me (a management trainee). Everyone pronounced it delicious and it was wonderful. He had an excellent seasoned batter coating and it was somewhat like chicken (yeah, that's what everyone says about reptile meat), only shaped a little different and slightly firmer. It was tasty yet tender stuff and most of us had more than one piece (it was a large turtle). Then the office girls started coming in and one of them was the warehouse manager's daughter (he was in on it). Some of the girls thought it odd to have chicken for breakfast but Jim A. told them it was his special recipe without specifically mentioning chicken. Almost all of them took a piece, eating it near the time clock before going on into the offices. By that time, many of the guys were barely containing themselves with laughter and I'd be rich right now if I'd had a video camera. Jim A. asked the girls how they liked it. Every one of them said it was delicious, some of the best chicken they'd ever eaten. Jim A. says to them, "Chicken? Who said it was chicken? That's some of the finest snapping turtle Reedy Creek's ever churned up!" I thought a couple of them were either gonna faint or have a stroke. Large amounts of feminine cussing. At least one didn't make it to the bathroom before losing breakfast.

The moral of the story is: some things that you'd never in a million years eat by choice do taste fantastic. Turtle and frog legs are both excellent examples. I'd love to have a big basket of either of them fried with his secret recipe!

LOL, that's a great story.... I've actually never had a lot of weird stuff.... though I've been tempted to try... It's funny though a lot of my family customs like "Stuffed Cabbage" or worcestershire sauce of eggs gets really funny looks from people around here when I do it.... "I'm like try it, it's good..."