Buddhists Bless Baby Turtles
822 views · Published 27 May 2015 · 1:49 · Indexed 6 November 2026
Channel: FOX 5 New York · 2015 · News & Politics
On the roof of an Upper West Side apartment building, 13 Buddhists stood around a collection of plastic tubs and chanted a 20-minute blessing for the 600 baby turtles swimming in the buckets before them. "That ceremony goes very far back," said Benkond Shih. "I wouldn't even know how long." The New York Department of environmental conservation seized the red-eared sliders after someone attempted to smuggle them into Chinatown from China." "They're a little less stressed than when they came in, but they're still stressed out," said Lorri Cramer, a professional turtle rehabilitator of 30 years. She has kept these sliders in her apartment for the last three weeks. Some won't survive the shellshock of their journey to freedom, but those which do might grow to more than a foot in length and live more than a hundred years. "They've been here longer than the dinosaurs," Lorri said. Unfortunately, we don't want these particular turtles here any longer. Native to the Mississippi basin, red-eared sliders might decimate this region's local populations if released into the wild. They also might carry diseases like salmonella. Lorri and Humane Society International must find places to release these turtles without endangering the ecosystem. So Lorri contacted some Buddhists she knew to bless the turtles. Buddhists evidently boast a long history of returning animals to the wild. On this day they chanted on this roof to ensure these turtles lived full, peaceful lives and achieved enlightenment. "They're so different from what people expect," Lorri said. "They're not slow. Some of them are very, very smart." --MAC KING
