Turtle Racing

My friends were headed out for a birthday, and I'm never one to back away from a celebration. Birthday celebrations have come a long way from a simple house party, and this was no exception.

I was told this party would be held at a bar that offered "turtle racing." I had never heard of this before, but basically my friends told me that turtles are placed on a table, and that the turtle that reached the outside of table first is declared the winner. The bar draws names out of a hat to determine who is assigned what turtle.

My first instinct on this was concern for the turtles. Being surrounded by a boatload of drunk, yelling people isn't fun for me sometimes, and I didn't see how it would be any different for a poor, helpless little turtle. I was very concerned about their well-being.

I did some googling and found that PETA had worked to stop turtle racing at bars in other states, but it didn't seem to me that there was concrete evidence that it was extremely harmful for the turtles, other than the fact that having turtles as pets took them out of their natural environment and could spread salmonella. I still felt bad, I don't like knowing that we utilize animals to provide us enjoyment for food, and this just seemed frivolous.

However, Jeff really wanted to go, and he made two valid points. 1) He assured me they were treated very well and 2) He told me I am a hypocrite since I enjoy gambling on horse racing. Clearly he won this battle.

An aside here, I am not sure why the turtle racing bothered me more than the horse racing. Maybe its because I have only viewed a horse as a domesticated animal, a working animal. I'm not sure racing is against its nature. Maybe this does make me a hypocrite, but I'm just exploring my thought process. Something about the turtle racing just made me feel sad.

I went to the event, and for the first few rounds, I watched the races on the closed circuit TV they had at the bar, and didn't stand and watch from the sidelines. It wasn't so bad on the TV. The host was nice. He told us that he cares for the turtles as his personal pets. The only do the races one night a week, and the other nights the turtles get to spend their lives out of the spotlight. It was sponsored by Budweiser.

I finally got up to the sidelines, and it made me feel sad. The turtles were just scrambling, and I don't think they were being treated poorly, but there was something about using these living things as a way to entertain ourselves that was eye-opening. I didn't like it. I don't know how this will impact my love of horse-racing, but I just know this was not my jam. Being a human is really tricky stuff.