"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..." Tuesday night was an ordinarily busy night but not too busy to recognize a parody of two cities unfold. There was a female snapping turtle in a sand trap in Delavan; there was a female snapping turtle in traffic on a busy Brookfield road. One may come to think that the latter of the two would face the harshness of life. In fact the opposite held true. As I exited the Barker Road round-a-bout heading south I witnessed two young men in the midst of traffic standing with a broom in the center of the road. As I approached I slowed down to inquire as to what they were doing. They promptly replied, "We are saving a turtle." And there on the road very near their bare feet was a large snapping turtle attempting to cross the busy road. With cars continuing to zoom past in both directions these young men thought nothing of the risk to themselves as they proceeded to guide this turtle to safety. I pulled to the side of the road and after activating my hazard lights proceeded to assist them. We coaxed the turtle safely to the side of the road. It was apparent that this turtle was struck at some point by one of the vehicles that traveled this road. To make a long story short this turtle was transported to "Wildlife in Need" where it was treated for a minor injury to it's head and re-released to the pond that it was headed towards. The tale of the other snapping turtle does not quite bode so well. This turtle met up with "evil" earlier in the day on a golf course in Delavan. (All of this unbeknownst to me until I shared the tale of the Brookfield turtle on Tuesday evening via social media.) While heading towards a sand trap to lay her eggs this turtle met up with the unthinkable. Someone in an unconscionable act decided that this turtle needed to endure brutality and inhumanity. This turtle was beaten to near death with a golf club. Anyone who knows anything about a snapping turtle will tell you that such and animal will only become aggressive if provoked. And even if so a human being would not be intentionally sought out as a target of such a turtle. The reverse was not true of this unknown human and their actions toward this turtle. Sadly, while the turtle of Brookfield through the kindness of two young men was cared for and re-released to it's natural habitat the turtle from Delavan was not so fortunate as it died less than a day later. I can't help to think of the lesson that these young men (just high school students) have taught through their actions of compassion. If only the same would have been true of the unknown "golfer" in Delavan. While the reward offer continues to grow for information leading to an arrest in the Delevan tragedy I can only hope that the conscience of the person responsible for such a senseless act will return and allow them to come forward and accept responsibility for their actions. Meanwhile hats off to the young men who sacrificed their own safety to ensure the positive outcome for the snapping turtle that they assisted. As my post read that night it was a good day to be a turtle...in Brookfield. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
