The way the turtles lay their eggs is one of the most interesting things in the world. Only to think that turtles travel kilometers to return to the same place where they were born to lay their eggs. In 2008, I was living in Nicaragua; my family and I went on a trip to the beach to see how turtles lay their eggs. We arrived at the place called La Flor, and we spend around 7 hours, from 7:00 pm to 2:00 am, waiting. The first 3 hours, no turtle appeared. 10 minutes later, a turtle without rear fins emerged from water; it was difficult for her to move through the sand. The guide came closer to me and asked me if I could go with her to help the turtle which was around 60cm to 90cm long and really heavy. We waited for another hour and another turtle arrived. You could appreciate the efforts they put to move in the sand, also imagine how long they have to swim to make it to the same beach where they were born, everything was beautiful.

The next morning, we returned and saw a woman taking out the eggs of the turtles. I ran as fast as I could and angrily asked the woman to stop. She stopped and left without telling us anything. At lunchtime, we saw the same woman had a bowl selling Palamas's eggs. In that very moment, I felt devastated and disappointed in the act of that woman. How could she do it? Was this woman thinking about the effect of her action? This made me think that we only care about ourselves and that what we are doing is causing damage to our world.

Animals around the world are killed without compassion; people cut sharks’ fins and throw the living animal in the sea. Sharks die of suffocation because they can’t breathe because of the incapacity of movement. “...tens of thousands of sea turtle eggs are stolen each year...”(HURIASH). Today all of these animals are endangered species. How can humans be so cynical by thinking that animals don’t feel pain?

Another way that animals have been mistreated by humans is by using them as entertaining resources: circus, zoos, bullfights, etc. In the circus, animals have to suffer, they have to learn positions that are not natural to their bodies. A problem that many animals that live in a circus or zoos develop is a mental disorder called zoochosis. This is caused by living in closed places. The animals develop aggressive conduct and they hurt themselves to the point that they can even amputate their own limbs. How can we cause them so much pain to the point that they would hurt themselves?

Many of the problems animals are having right now are caused by humans who have been taking their natural habitat, contaminating the water, and destroying their environment. The destruction of their natural habitat has become a big problem, and this will eventually affect us. According to Secore, “Nowadays 50% of the coral reefs of the world have died in the last 30 years. Imagine if the coral reefs disappear; a whole ecosystem would be extinct, and it would create instability in all the life on earth.”(Jantzen). How can we even think that polluting the area and water would not destroy ourselves?

I’m at the point where I think that we have the future of the animals in our hands if we as humans take more interest in the consequences of our actions on them. If we start to take care of our planet, the population of animals that have been endangered will increase to the point that they will be safe.

I have been in many situations that have allowed me to see and to find out that we just get the impact of things when they affect us. After my experience I had with the turtles and other animals, I couldn't stop thinking about ways to change this situation, starting by myself. I have encouraged myself to study animal conservation, to find a way to have a balance between animals and humans. Animals are living organisms just like us, so we should start to be less greedy, start to think that we are not alone on this earth. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”