カメデス

Here’s a story that I saw on the TV news and the newspaper recently about this turtle:

Someone painted 「カメデス」 ("I'm a turtle") on his back.

I added the original Japanese article here and below it is my translation of it to English.

雑記帳：「カメデス」カメ捕獲…甲府の舞鶴城公園

「カメデス」と甲羅に落書きされた甲府市の舞鶴城公園のカメが１６日、岸に上がっているところを捕獲された。落書きを消そうと、公園を管理する山 梨県が捕獲作戦を展開中だった。

仕事で外出していた山梨県警の男性警察官がカメを発見。近づくと手足を引っ込めたため、簡単に捕まえられたという。“逃走”を続けていたカメだ が、本職の警察官には手も足も出なかったようだ。

県は落書きされた文字を溶剤などで消すことも検討したが、カメはちょうど脱皮の時期。脱皮によって落書きが消える可能性もあるといい、結局、県の 施設で保護して様子を見守ることになった。

In English:

Journal：The “I’m A Turtle” turtle captured at Kofu Maizurujyou Park

A turtle that someone wrote “I’m A Turtle” on the shell was captured on June 16th at Maizurujyou Park in Kofu (Japan).

Government employees who manage the park had been trying unsuccessfully to capture the turtle to clean off the writing on it’s back.

A policeman was passing the park on his way to work and noticed the turtle. When he approached the turtle, it pulled it’s head and legs into it’s shell and the policeman was able to catch it easily.

The park employees were planning to remove the writing from the turtle’s back, but decided there was a risk of injuring the animal with the paint remover. So they decided to care for the turtle and hope the writing eventually wears off.

I wonder how someone could be mean to an animal. We have a pet turtle and I couldn’t imagine harming it (I have a photo of our turtle at the end of this post).