Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
February 28, 2000
AN adult green turtle lies motionless on the beach. Most of its head, including both eyes, is covered with fleshy, irregular-shaped masses of flesh.
The turtle looks dead. But an hour or so later, this pitiful creature slips back into the water where — blind, crippled and starving — it will die a slow and painful death.
I found this turtle on a remote Hawaii beach a few years ago and it still makes my stomach hurt to remember it. And since this sight is a common one here in Hawaii, lots of other people ache for the turtles too.
Naturally, we want something done for these gentle, suffering creatures, such as removing the tumors or creating a turtle hospital. Unfortunately, these reasonable-sounding suggestions aren’t so simple.
Surgically removing tumors from heavily afflicted turtles has several problems. First, to rid an area of the tumor-causing virus, about an inch of healthy tissue needs to be removed around each tumor. That means veterinarians would have to cut into eyes, jaw bones, skulls and shells. Most turtles could not survive such surgery.
Another problem with surgery is that many turtles also have internal tumors. Thirty-eight percent of the turtles National Marine Fisheries Service workers have had to put to sleep for severe external tumors also had internal tumors. Also, many of Hawaii’s turtles have inoperable tumors inside their mouths and throats.
AS for a turtle hospital, we have one. This Oahu facility, staffed by NMFS workers with help from other agencies and local veterinarians, has five seawater tanks.
A veterinarian checks every stranded turtle before it goes to this facility, treating them when possible. Most of the treated turtles are victims of boat strikes, fishing line cuts, spear holes and other trauma. The care center has a good rate of success with such hurt turtles.
Turtles with light to moderate tumors also are treated there, usually by freezing the tumors in a procedure called cryosurgery.
Extensively tumored turtles with little chance of survival, however, are not hospitalized. One reason for this is that captive turtles can easily contract infections. Another concern is that wastewater from sick-turtle tanks might contaminate coastal waters and thus infect healthy turtles.
In treating turtles with extensive tumors, compassion is a key consideration. Badly tumored turtles can’t see, eat, breathe or swim normally. And besides being emaciated and loaded with parasites, they are often in pain, especially when the eyes are involved.
Hawaii’s workers put such turtles to sleep as quickly and humanely as possible. They then make the most of the death by studying the bodies for clues to this devastating disease.
In human medicine, physicians are often caught in the trap of prolonging people’s lives when they have miserable, terminal illnesses, with no hope of getting better.
It’s wrong to make the same mistake in turtles. Better to make suffering animals with poor chances of survival in the wild as comfortable as possible — often meaning euthanasia — and focus on areas that will make the most difference. Determine what causes the disease. Find out why turtles have it now and not in the past. Establish ways of halting its spread. Research efforts on these topics are currently under way in Hawaii by NMFS and its collaborators.
Prolonging life when death is inevitable is not only inhumane; it doesn’t help the turtles of the future.