Would you eat a sea turtle egg?
We hope your answer to that is a resounding (and disgusted), “No!” In any case, whatever answer you gave is moot because it’s illegal to eat sea turtles or their eggs anyways. This netizen probably didn’t know that, as evidenced by her proudly flaunting her cooked turtle eggs from Turtle Island on Facebook.
“so yummyyy [sic],” the netizen described the eggs, which she had received from her husband. What makes the post even more infuriating is that the netizen, as the other internet dwellers soon uncovered, was a public servant. She was the former mayor of Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay, and was a provincial board member. You’d think that she’d know the law (although on second thought, considering all the shady things our political leaders have done, she’s in good company).
People have already started reporting her in droves, especially after animal rights and environmentalist groups started reposting her status. Here’s to hoping she gets her due.
Let’s get back to the eating of the turtle eggs. I know it’s exciting to eat “exotic food.” I still remember my first taste of venison, tasting the chewy, gamey meat at an exotic restaurant with my father who had insisted I try it. Or the first time I had frog legs and wondering if the tiny little legs could still kick. Even balut was an entirely new experience, and I can still exactly recall how it felt when I chased down the slimy taste of the tiny duck and its brittle bones with vinegar and salt.
However, wanting to try out “exotic food” doesn’t give you a pass to just eat whatever because it’s different. You need to be ethical when it comes to the food you eat. We’re not asking you to be vegan (I’m clearly not, as you can tell from the previous paragraph), but at least to always be cautious and make the right moral choices. Even if eating turtle eggs wasn’t illegal, you still shouldn’t eat them if you’re given the opportunity to anyways. Sea turtles are endangered creatures, and every poached turtle, every turtle egg mindlessly cooked is a countdown to the extinction of the species.
Ethics shouldn’t only play into what you eat, but to how you treat the world around you, period. Contrary to popular opinion, the world isn’t ours for the taking. We all have responsibility over the planet and the creatures in it. It’s incredibly selfish of a person to harm another living being just because it’s a cool experience.
What do I mean by this? A few years ago, a man posted on Facebook about catching a dolphin with a hook. #Finding Charlie sparked a month ago in search of a diver that vandalized a coral with his name, Charlie.
I’m sure the hooked dolphin man thought his picture would get a lot of likes. I’m sure Charlie thought he was being cool when he killed the coral, and was probably showing off to his friends. And I’m sure the poached egg woman was proud of her husband with the eggs all the way from Turtle Island, and wanted to brag about it to her Facebook friends.
Is chasing clout any justification for hurting animals? The environment? No, no, and a million times, no.
Featured photo courtesy of Unsplash
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