Sea turtle saved at Chevron Roundabout

My Boss and I were returning from a retreat at one of the hotels in Lekki when we saw a group of young men with a huge Sea turtle at the roundabout close to Chevron. At first we decided to ignore this scene and drive on but the thought of what would become of the turtle if it got into the wrong hands wouldn’t let us be. So we decided to turn around and discuss with these young men. We asked what they wanted to do with the turtle and they said they wanted to sell it. We asked how much, and was told 20,000naira, we were able to negotiate the price with them and beat it down to 17,000naira.

At this point the turtle was looking very weak and tired, so we put her in the car and started driving. We considered returning her to the sea or taking her to Lekki conservation centre; but for the fact that she acted very weak and lethargic and this would only make her an easy prey for larger animals in the Sea, we decided to go with the latter option. 

While wondering what could have made her return to land, even to the extent of getting captured, pop! she dropped an egg right there in the car. Apparently she was pregnant and only came to land to lay her eggs.

While driving to Lekki Conservation Centre, we decided to call someone over there to inform them of our coming but we were told that they have a strict acceptance policy which prohibits people from bringing animals to the centre. This I found very absurd and annoying; considering the fact that we were donating the turtle for free, not like we were requesting for any money from them. The fear that the new animal to be introduced might carry germs or diseases and infect other animals could be properly dealt with, simply by quarantining the new animal for a period of time and taking other preventive measures.

We ended up taking the turtle to Lufasi Park in Lekki were she was gladly accepted. 

Main Point

We continue killing, maiming and hurting almost all the animals we find in our environment. Anytime I come online to nairaland, there is always a topic that looks like the “see the animal that a nairalander killed in his room, house, compound, school etc”. It would either be a snake, alligator, squirrel, deer etc. You never see a topic like “see the animal a nairalander captured and is returning to the zoo”. The mere fact you could kill it means you could also capture it and take it to the zoo, park or reserve. It is just inhumane, unfair and wicked to keep killing all the animals we find in our environment. There would be a time when all these animals would be gone in Nigeria; what then do you want the generations yet unborn to see. 

Sorry for the quality of the pictures

By

Tourismlove