Don't throw coins near turtles:
Veterinarians laboured for seven hours to remove 915 coins weighing five kilogrammes from a sea turtle suffering chronic stomach ache. [...] Last month, Om Sin, Thai for piggy bank, was sent to the faculty from the Sea Turtle Conservation Centre of the Royal Thai Navy in Sattahip district in Chonburi last month after it barely swam. A CT scan at the university shocked vets when they saw the mound of coins. [...] According to Thai belief, throwing coins into a turtle pond would stop bad luck.
Also at Washington Post, NPR, Smithsonian, and The Guardian (video).
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915 Coins Surgically Removed From Turtle
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:07AM (1 child)
How much do the coins total to?
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:46AM
I read somewhere that they didn't check because the coins were from various countries and part of them were badly corroded.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by gOnZo on Tuesday March 07 2017, @10:33AM (4 children)
Install a grid in the bottom of the tank that lets the coins fall through. Now the turtles can't get to them, and you don't have to try to 'change the beliefs' of the general populace (which could take a very long time).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @02:23PM (2 children)
More fun to train the turtles to recover the coins and then spit them out into a container. I'll bet they are smart enough to do this with a clever training routine -- swap a coin for something tasty. First thought, start with a coin on a fishing line. This site, http://www.anapsid.org/tamingvh.html [anapsid.org] claims turtles like to be stroked on their belly.
It might be easier to train a few turtles than to re-train the whole superstitious human population?
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday March 07 2017, @03:12PM
For some reason this caused my mind to conjure up an image of turtles starting to mugging each other and soon end up dressed as pimps whilst waging gang wars.
A more likeky outcome, howver, is turtles starting to mug people.
Either way I'm in favour of and look forward to this
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:22AM
"People don’t realise that picking up something you have found amounts to a theft."
http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/woman-charged-with-theft-after-pocketing-a-20-note-she-found-in-a-shop/news-story/6cd35d4e7e18cbb107ec65baf4dbd392 [news.com.au]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @07:07PM
> Install a grid in the bottom of the tank
Its not a tank.
Its a pond.
Any such "grid" is going to require a lot of work to construct and its going to require regular cleaning to prevent sediment from filling it up and making it ineffective.
Its probably not healthy for a big-ass turtle to constantly rest on a such a grid either, if the grid is open enough for coins to fall through its feet might get hooked in it and trap him underwater such that he drowns.
As the saying goes, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday March 07 2017, @11:52AM
Someone needs to put a stop to these monsters! [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @04:21PM
Terrible superstitious belief, but less harmful harmful to the turtle than the one where a turtle penis will cure a case of genital herpes.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Tuesday March 07 2017, @10:02PM
According to Thai belief, throwing coins into a turtle pond would stop bad luck.
Really. Seems to cause it for turtles.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti