我用相機給烏龜拍過一些影片放在Youtube上, 還用英文寫了撿烏龜的事. 8月初突然有個叫Bradley的人用Youtube帳號聯絡我, 自稱是紐約太陽報記者, 他前一天在東河邊目擊華人婦女放生大量烏龜! 他看了很好奇, 就想報導這個現象, 還寫信給一家大學的華裔教授請教這是否跟佛教節日有關. 我回信解釋這是佛教徒錯誤的放生觀念, 只會害死烏龜. 我把記者的信給前男友看, 他馬上衝去河邊看有沒有烏龜, 因為放生那麼大批烏龜後, 烏龜在河裡漂流頂多只能撐幾天就會力盡淹死, 果然那天之後兩三天都有撿到烏龜. 回來後前男友興沖沖地借我的帳號跟Bradley交流, 最後決定約一天到河邊讓他訪問.
於是幾天後的下午我們就到東河邊跟這位記者見面, 原來Bradley只有23歲, 長得很可愛喔XD 他還帶了一位攝影師全程錄影, 過程約一小時, 訪問中前男友居然當場瞄到一隻落難烏龜, 翻過欄杆爬到小沙灘上把牠救起來, 這是我第一次目睹他救烏龜, 好酷喔! 不過撿到的這隻整個殼的邊緣有很多缺口, 甚至露出粉紅色骨頭, 顯然是被強勁水流衝擊河邊石頭造成的, 還好除了殼慘不忍睹之外, 烏龜精神還滿好的. 我們新撿到的一批烏龜當然沒辦法養下去, 又得去中央公園放生了, Bradley也想跟著去, 於是過幾天後, 前男友就帶他去中央公園看放生實況了, 我因為人不舒服就沒去.
Bradley訪問完是說不確定他這篇報導能不能登出, 今天接到Bradley的訊息說刊登在週末報上! 還給我網路版的網址! 文中提到有個寺廟意識到往河裡丟烏龜其實是害死牠們, 已經試圖教育其他佛教徒了, 還發明了"放死"這個詞, 一針見血. 另外紐約龜類協會也一直努力想促進立法管制中國城販賣烏龜的情形.
這篇報導太長了, 我沒辦法翻譯, 就直接貼原文了, 前男友的名字改成XXXX.
Chinatown Turtle Tug of War Felt in Central Park
By BRADLEY HOPE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 17, 2007
Photography by Konrad Fiedler
XXXX drops turtles rescued from the East River into the Turtle Pond in Central Park.
In Chinatown, turtles are the center of a tug of war whose ramifications
are being felt at the Central Park Turtle Pond.
One side makes turtles into soups that are ladled into the bowls of the elderly,
the pregnant, and the recently born in the hopes of imparting longevity.
The other group, mostly Buddhists, is buying up turtles from food markets and
"setting them free" into the East River.
Neither side appears to know that the quiet war of ideas over reptiles is leading,
in part, to a proliferation of a non-native species in the Turtle Pond.
It is left to XXXX, 50, and his girlfriend, Charme Chen, 29, to deal with the aftermath.
Each day, Mr. XXXX walks along the stretch of the East River promenade between
the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges to look for turtles in need of rescue.
A group of Chinese Buddhists(no one knows how many) take their belief to
the extreme on holidays and special occasions, casting turtles into the East River
to set them free. The practice is called fangsheng, or "release of life," and dates back
to the 6th century. Setting turtles or other animals free increases a Buddhist's merit,
which is believed to translate into a better rebirth.
The species of turtle most commonly found in Chinatown (and consequently
the East River and the Turtle Pond) is the red-eared slider, which originates
from the tributaries leading into the Mississippi River. It cannot survive in
the brackish waters around Manhattan, according to herpetologists.
"There's one," Mr. XXXX said with concern during one of his recent walks
accompanied by a reporter and Ms. Chen. He then leaped over the railing
onto a sandy area to rescue a small red-eared slider with a badly damaged shell.
"This is no place for a turtle," he said. "There is no place to come up on land and rest.
It's hard for them to find food."
At home, Mr. XXXX cleans their shells, nourishes them, and lets them recover
before bringing them up to the Turtle Pond. Ms. Chen, a singer whom he met through
the internet, tends to give them names such as Sugar Free and Sailor Moon.
Mr. XXXX, wearing a floppy sun hat with a metal gecko attached to the front, a pink shirt,
and cargo pants, can often be seen looking for turtles with binoculars.
He said he first witnessed the practice of releasing turtles about two years ago,
when he saw a woman with a burlap bag full of more than 100 turtles toss them in, one by one.
He managed to save only about eight that day, he said. The rest either drowned or
were carried off to areas where he couldn't get to them.
A reporter observed the "fangsheng" practice on August 1, the 19th day of
the sixth month in the lunar calendar. On that day hundreds of years ago,
Princess Miaoshan, the human manifestation of the Buddhist bodhisattva
Guanyin, left home to begin practicing religion, according to Buddhist texts.
The women painted red symbols on the backs of the turtles, including the "svasti,"
the symbol adopted by the Nazi party. They said a prayer over the turtles and then
pushed them over the edge into the water five feet below. The women declined
to be interviewed.
The symbols on the back say "all," and "release of life," according to a professor
of Chinese Buddhism at Columbia University, Chun-fang Yu. The ritual dates back
to Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, a Buddhist leader who built universities and
decreed that animals should not be killed. In Asian countries with Buddhist populations,
there has of late been a movement to stop the practice altogether.
A resident monk at the Grace Gratitude Buddhist Temple, Ben Kong, said the Buddhists "It's a sad situation," he said. He said his temple has been trying to educate some of the congregants. They even came "The main thing is that we don't have something of value to replace it with," Mr. Kong said, This practice, and the fact that other New Yorkers may be getting rid of pet turtles in "They are basically a problem because there is so many of them," Mr. Hernandez said. The head of rehabilitation and education at the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society, "It's actually very cruel to keep them alive, out of water," she said. "They are dehydrated.
still practicing fangsheng in New York City were ignorant of the harm they cause to the
local ecosystem and the turtles.
up with a new word, "fangsi," which means "release of death."
adding that the temple may suggest that Buddhists donate money to environmental and
animal welfare organizations as a new way to practice "fangsheng."
Central Park, has led to a proliferation of red-eared sliders, according to Maria Hernandez,
the gardener in charge of the pond.
"We try and discourage it because it is not a native species."
Lorri Kramer, said she has long hoped to end the trouble with turtles in Chinatown by
getting them banned from sale, but legislation hasn't made it through the Assembly.
Their arms and legs are going to be aching the whole time."
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