Snapperfest 2011: Does Turtle Event Torture Animals?

Looking for something to do this Saturday? How about a festival where each competitor allegedly yanks a snapping turtle's head until the animal's neck can be wrapped around the contestant's fist?

Welcome to Snapperfest, an event held for over a decade in Ohio County, Indiana.

The annual festival is set to take place on Saturday, August 20th at Campshore Campgrounds, after PETA unsuccessfully tried to stop the event.

"The frightened animals are grabbed by their tails and repeatedly slammed to the ground. Their heads are yanked from their shells, and they are then swung around until 'contestants' are able to wrap their fists around the animals' necks," according to PETA.

Cheering on the turtle-wranglers has grown in popularity, and the organizers insist it is good, clean fun, according to Eagle Country radio.

A Campshore Campground co-owner told the station, "We do not kill the turtles. They are caught by hand. You can't pull the head off a turtle." He went so far as to invite PETA to the event to observe and "see we're not doing anything wrong."

However, according to Examiner.com, many of the turtles are killed. "Most suffer fatal injuries or die from stress, and since turtles are cold-blooded animals, they lanquish and suffer excruciating pain for a long time until death relieves them of their pain," Cheryl Hanna writes.

IPFW's Center for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation and Management writes, "Collection for human consumption and use may be a threat to the Snapping Turtle in portions of its range. In Indiana, the Snapping Turtle is a game species, and its meat is sometimes used in soups and stews."

PETA's website lists contacts for commissioners, council members and the campground, to urge them to halt the festival.

According to Eagle County radio, Aurora Police Chief Bryan Field said in a statement that although he has received numerous complaints, the event falls outside of the jurisdiction of the Aurora Police Department.

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Comments

[redsoxpagan]

02:41 PM on 09/07/2011

(Not cas_tiga_ting all of In_dia_na) What a bunch of ya_hoo sc_um im_be_ciles. Hope there's some di_sease one can get from this stu_pi_dity, preferably one that makes the i_di_ots ste_rile!!

[jackie bianchini]

12:48 PM on 08/26/2011

Something is severely wrong with a person who would host, watch, and/or participate in such a disgusting, barbaric, and blatant display of cruelty! How is this even allowed???? Anyone who attends, or participates in any way, in an event like this deserves to be VERY harshly punished!

[ebbelwoi]

08:56 AM on 08/23/2011

I grew up 50 miles from there and I've never, ever heard of this event. Neither has anyone I know back home. I've a good friend who is quite the backwoodsman (and turtle trapper too) who lives maybe 20 miles from there and even he hadn't heard of it. Rather simplistic for folks to castigate a particular region just because of a few idiots. I also know some guys who work in Midtown Manhattan who do the same or worse to fish and other animals out on Long Island Sound on the weekends while guzzling cheap brewskies. I also just got back from vacation in France and Spain where, if I'm not mistaken, torturing animals is still featured on the nightly sporting news.

[lambdin1]

01:29 PM on 08/22/2011

Another reason not to go to Indiana! Simple people, simple minds.

[ebbelwoi]

08:58 AM on 08/23/2011

See above

[Josh Feichter]

06:29 PM on 08/26/2011

Hey man, I'm from In, we're not all like that you moron, you can't profile an entire state because of these neanderthals, sounds like you gots ta gets u somes ed ya cation

[lambdin1]

09:44 PM on 08/26/2011

Yes, everybody has their problems.

[Nina Vecchi]

11:26 AM on 08/22/2011

I went to the radio station web site. And it does not show what's actually is happening to the poor turtles...but this video does.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e48_1313838099
It's very sad that humans have to act so savagely towards creatures that just want to go about living their own lives. This should be against the law. It's cruel, inhumane and a violent activity. I don't see how anyone could consider this entertainment.

[StephenJK]

10:51 AM on 08/22/2011

I want to grab the participants and swing them around by their neck and slam them into the ground. Then invite their families to show them that I'm not doing anything wrong.

[rickpark1]

10:45 AM on 08/22/2011

Millions of baby ducks are saying: Don't save them," they eat us like popcorn"

[TooKrunk]

09:47 AM on 08/22/2011

Someone better notify master splinter

[jojothedoggirl]

06:33 AM on 08/22/2011

This should be stopped ! I can't believe it is even legal to do this to an animal .

[LoLo72]

09:35 PM on 08/21/2011

horrible contest, leave turtles alone.

[graceaustin]

08:52 PM on 08/21/2011

Hard to take this kind of disgusting practice. That's as much as I can say without my remarks being removed.

[StephenJK]

10:53 AM on 08/22/2011

I'm with you grace. I'm an animal lover and have much respect for the natural world. It is absolutely disgusting.

[graceaustin]

02:37 PM on 08/22/2011

Ironically, were I to witness that, I'd attack the person(s) doing it, with the intent of doing far more damage to them.

[mcmHI]

07:28 PM on 08/21/2011

This is disgusting. Something is definitely wrong with you if you need to torture and animal for entertainment or sport. Mankind is doomed.

[Kenny Torrella]

02:56 PM on 08/21/2011

This is sick... But not nearly as bad as the cruelty inflicted on farmed animals, which most Americans still support. Unfortunately, most Americans just don't know how their food is made. More info at MeatVideo.com

[Chris Gilmer]

05:02 PM on 08/21/2011

"Earthlings" is a good film. Growing up, I had no idea---now it's all I can see when I watch someone eating meat.

[donabrdluv]

01:33 PM on 08/21/2011

I am no doctor so I ask, can you pull the head off of a human? If not then for every turtle that has it's head streatched "with no pain", let a human also have his/her head stretched. Make it a law.

[SimonBao]

01:09 AM on 08/22/2011

No, you are not a doctor.

And you should never make an unsubstantiated claim about turtles' necks the premise for protesting animal cruelty.

The truth is that snapping turtles are well known for their ridiculously long, muscular, snake-like necks that they easily extend all the way to the back of their carapace and snap your fingers off.

There's been no evidence offered by PETA that any turtles are injured by having their heads pulled out of their shells, and that's probably because that doesn't injure them.

The snappers are far more likely to be gravely injured by someone picking them up their tails. That *will* very readily injure their spinal columns.

And some folks at this Snapperfest probably do exactly that, but I suspect no one at PETA has done their homework or realized THAT is what they ought to be videotaping.

There are plenty of reasons to protest the treatment of the turtles at Snapperfest, but the stretching of the turtles' necks is probably the least harmful thing being done to the turtles.

[jojothedoggirl]

06:39 AM on 08/22/2011

Oh c'mon . Simon that is a load . In the story it says they are slammed to the ground several times , now is that something they do to them selves too ? I say for the safety of the I hesitate to call them people , but anyway , the people that do this need to be protected from them selves . If their fingers are in danger . And I have seen a snapping turtle in the flesh as it were , they are fast and want no truck with people. Leave them the heck alone . Everything that is a tradition is not worth saving .

[DMGMD]

10:33 AM on 08/22/2011

I am a doctor. But it doesn't take a medical degree to know that forcefully pulling on a creatures neck for "sport" is wrong. Yes they can extend their necks quite a distance (have a look at their skeletal anatomy and you'll see why), but the guys in this "competition" aren't exactly veterinarians carefully examining a patient.

This isn't sport, it's a disrespect for life and it's brutal and unnecessary. I can only imagine dimwitted hillbillies enjoying something as vile as this.

But it also illustrates how PETA has become an ineffective organization when it comes to a legitimate issue like Snapperfest terrapin torture. They've spent much of their capital on ridiculous antics, and have become a fringe element that has no broad respect.

Good job PETA, those turtles needed a champion, but your actions made your organization irrelevant and a caricature.

[SheikArbusto]

12:57 PM on 08/21/2011

If you believe that we, as a society, have a role in determining the limits of what humans can do to animals, and that animals have a right not to be tortured, then welcome. You believe that animals have some rights, and you my friends, are now in the animal rights movement.