Sea Turtle Shot In Neck With 3-Foot Spear

[Storker]

Serious question: if the species isn't so endangered that every individual counts, is treating a hurt individual the best course of action, ethically speaking?

Wild animals are often seriously stressed when they're handled by humans. Usually the most humane option for a hurt animal is euthanasia rather than treatment. Of course, if the species is critically endangered the survival of the species trumps the suffering of one single individual.

 

[Protondecay123]

Green sea turtles are an endangered species. If you are referring to some other species, that would seem to be off topic to me.

 

[Londy]

Serious question: if the species isn't so endangered that every individual counts, is treating a hurt individual the best course of action, ethically speaking?

Usually the most humane option for a hurt animal is euthanasia rather than treatment.

That turtle looked fairly comfortable swimming around in the tank. If it could speak, and you asked it "would you prefer to be in this tank for a few weeks, or struggling with a spear through 2/3 of your body, or dead, which would you choose", I bet it would emphatically wave it's fins and proclaim "This tank is just fine, thank you very much"

 

[Storker]

Green sea turtles are an endangered species

We don't disagree about that.

What I was asking about was whether green sea turtles are so critically endangered that the survival of one single individual has an impact on the survival of the species. It's probably more humane to euthanize that individual rather than subjecting it to the stress it experiences by being handled by the vets. So whether that individual should be treated or euthanized is a question of whether the survival of the species depends on that individual's well-being being violated.

Sometimes the most ethical action is to euthanize.

 

[AfterDark]

Serious question: if the species isn't so endangered that every individual counts, is treating a hurt individual the best course of action, ethically speaking?

Wild animals are often seriously stressed when they're handled by humans. Usually the most humane option for a hurt animal is euthanasia rather than treatment. Of course, if the species is critically endangered the survival of the species trumps the suffering of one single individual.

Under some conditions that's true and is done everyday with ours pets usually under the guidance of vet pros.

My guess is vet pros evaluated the turtle's condition and determined with a medical best guess that the turtle would benefit from medical treatment.

I've handled dogs that were stressed by the handling (shaking, ears down, tail tucked under, wouldn't take cheese!) because of the way they were handled by humans in the past, two of them are my pets, I like'em alive and they like me, now.

 

[Storker]

Under some conditions that's true and is done everyday with ours pets

You're forgetting a fundamental difference: a pet is used to being handled by humans. Wild animals aren't. For them, the experience is completely alien and very probably a lot more stressful than it is for a pet.

I'm all for conservation and preserving species. But unless the species is critically endangered, it might well be that the "humane" option of taking an injured wild animal to the vet is the least humane option.

But there's no cookie cutter answer to that question.

 

[DBPacific]

You're forgetting a fundamental difference: a pet is used to being handled by humans. Wild animals aren't. For them, the experience is completely alien and very probably a lot more stressful than it is for a pet.

I'm all for conservation and preserving species. But unless the species is critically endangered, it might well be that the "humane" option of taking an injured wild animal to the vet is the least humane option.

But there's no cookie cutter answer to that question.

You also can't underestimate the resilience of a wild animal. The options as the vets saw it were probably something like:

1. Leave this animal alone so it won't be touched by humans any more and will instead suffer a likely slow and painful death in the wild

2. Bring her in (which would already stress an animal) and euthanize her for a treatable wound, reducing an endangered population even further

3. Use specialized facilities and good care to minimize longer stress levels and treat the injury. The stress might impact recovery or kill her, but she's dead anyways so may as well try.

You can't avoid stress for any organism, including humans. That turtle is doing much better and seems fine. If you want to humanely euthanize stressed animals, maybe start with college students

 

[Storker]

If you want to humanely euthanize stressed animals, maybe start with college students

Excuse me??? Or, more accurately, WTF???

 

[DBPacific]

Excuse me??? Or, more accurately, WTF???

Meant to be a joke, sorry. If someone wanted to save animals from stress, start with the stressed out college students.
Just speaking as a college student myself. There's a lot of stress and human-induced stress. I'm just waiting for my term to start to hear the first reports of students crying in the library.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

As the parent of a college student. I got the humor. that was funny.

Now as for the turtle, when an animal's main cause of demise is human, I think it's in the best interest to save as many as we can. As a previous poster pointed out, it's gonna be stressed anyhow, minus well try to fix what ails her. Also, there are plenty of videos around of injured animals seeking humans out to help them. Maybe it took her a month to find one..