In Reply to: Cows aren't endangered. posted by tracy on Friday, 22. April 2005 at 12:25 Bali Time:
It is more that westerners come into a country and try to change what the indigenous population has been doing for centuries and call it progress (eg colonisation, missionary work and Christianism) Or the Westerners create a problem through overkilling and hunting, then expect the locals to give it up, yet the locals have been co-existing with the creatures for centuries because their existence depended on it.
I never said that eating turtles was OK, I just said that it was an indigenous practice dating back centuries.
The locals are quite welcome to using coral as they have done so for centuries, but I do not believe that we as tourists should take it away.
And I mentioned leather because I felt that the poster I replied to was concerned about the welfare of the turtle as a living creature and not necessarily because it was endangered.