Shocking footage of the unbridled appetites of terrapin.
I actually enjoyed watching and feeding the little creatures amazed they were meat eaters. I then discovered that these animals, originally bought as tiny pets, grew from the size of a 50p piece to a dinner plate and consequently were being released into the wild. They have enough strength to snap a child’s finger off and are a pest to our natural wildlife. The ones in this footage were rescued terrapins from homes that no longer wanted them.
I watched these insatiable small creatures climbing over each other, their whole being desperate for a mouthful of sausage and thought about ‘appetite’.
Appetite for food, for sex, for love, for revenge, to win, acquire money etc. We are creatures of appetite. This can be positive and life-affirming or negative and destructive. Perhaps in our rush to feed ourselves, we allow others to go hungry, to miss out. When we take, do others go without?
A society that nourishes the craving to feed ‘me’, ‘I’ at the expense of others, is a society that will, in the end, be left with nothing to give and destroy itself. Human beings thrive on loving, giving and community rather than isolating ourselves through voraciously feeding our appetites.