Two turtles were found with swastikas painted on them in a state park in Renton, Wash., nearby Seattle.
The Renton Police Department announced in a Nov. 5 Facebook post that the turtles were seen at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park, but the authorities were unable to capture them.
https://www.facebook.com/RentonPDWA/photos/pb.666538636693829.-2207520000.0./3006782636002739/?type=3&theater
According to The Seattle Times, authorities think that the turtles were formerly pets that were put into the wild with white inverted swastikas painted on them. The turtles are also not believed to be from Lake Washington, where the park is located, KIRO 7 reports.
“It seems pretty clear to us what the symbol means,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Pacific Northwest Regional Director Miri Cypers told the Times. “I think it’s a really sad and unfortunate act. Unfortunately, anti-Semitic vandalism is becoming all too common in this climate.”
Chad Cashman-Greene, who organized the Nov. 9 Rally Against Hate in response to the swastikas, told KIRO 7, “Many of us are upset to see this in our own backyard.”
Former New York Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who heads the Americans Against Antisemitism watchdog, tweeted, “In the latest strain of the anti-Semitism plague even wildlife aren’t safe! Sick people out there.”
In the latest strain of the antisemitism plague even wildlife aren’t safe!
Sick people out there. https://t.co/4JLDx0Pr1T
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) November 7, 2019
The ADL’s Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents found that there was a 60% increase in anti-Semitic incidents from 2017 to 2018 in Washington State.
