Will you just look at this tiny helpless baby. I thought it was illegal to sell hatchling RES's. My daughters friend gave us two of these tiny baby turtles because everybody in our town brings us there turtles were sorta a turtle rescue place. I find good homes for them but i cant even keep these tiny things with my other group of three. She bought them in a place they call chinatown for 6 bucks. Why arnt they stopping them from selling these tiny things? I mean their cute and adorable but how many people take proper care of them? I tried to feed them worms but they are so scared. I guess ill have to get some minnows and a uvb for them. This really is a shame that their not stopping them from selling these.
It is illegal to sell turtles under 4 inches. The authorities know whats going on, its just that they dont think it is important and doesnt put it as a priority. People buy these little things and dont have a clue how to take care of it and what they are getting into.
A lot of places work around the rules by selling them for "educational purposes only". Turtles are a HUGE and expensive commitment.
You have got that right. And the only reason they are illegal to sell under 4" is because children were getting samonilla poisoning from them it's not for the turtles sake so to say. At least they were smart enough to bring them to me, beats neglecting them.
Yeah, but you should see the ones at the store that they are selling :cry: Half of the people sell them making it seem like your buying the habitat for the animal and the accessories and not the turtle. This past year I have had at least 6 babies dropped off at my house that I just couldn't help because they were so far gone. I think that alot of people should get together and make a BIG deal about and maybe we might get somewhere not only for the RES but for the TORT also.
its such a shame to hear things like that its cruel! i couldnt imagine treating my turtle how some of te ones i see are! you are right, we should get together and make a thing about it!
It is very unfortunate that the authorities don't care about the well being of these animals, but in this day and age there are more important things to worry about and that is very sad. I would like to help but there is not much a few people can do :[
It truly is unfortunate. The best thing regular customers can do is to stop buying these little guys. By buying them, all you are doing is giving more money as well as a reason to sell them.
To be honest, the 4 inch law isn't that great because it prohibits the sells of turtles under 4". Because of it some species are still wild caught because dealers don't want to have to wait 2 to 3 years or more before they can legally sell a turtle. I'm not referring to RES or any of the abundant aquatic turtles here, but mainly box turtles. These species live a long time and in some areas the populations are very low from human caused deaths (roads) and collecting. Were breeders able to legally sell year olds or even a few months old it would help encourage more captive breeding. I wouldn't mind actively breeding them in the future, raising hatchlings is very interesting. Their responses to everything are sometimes quite comical. Of course on the flip side of that, I wouldn't want them in a petstore because their care is usually more than the average person getting one on an impulse buy can manage. Maybe the best solution is to take these animals out of a petstore setting all together and only allow breeders to sell them and rescue groups to provide them for adoption. Generally most people going through the trouble to purchase their reptiles from a breeder are more concerned about properly providing for them.
i agree completely. however, its the people who aren't informed about these issues that do most of the buying. the people who know enough about it typically wont buy them because they dont want to support it. what makes it worse is the people who dont know enough to not support it are usually the same people who dont know enough to realize that the cute little coin sized turtle is going to grow up to be more than most of those people are able or willing to handle. i think the best way to really limit it would be to limit the sale of certain animals to breeders - dont allow petstores to sell them. even better would be to have to obtain a license or certification to breed or sell certain animals. i know it wont stop it, but a breeder that has to go through the trouble of getting a license for it is alot more likely to be dedicated to it, and probably more likely to make sure his animals go to a proper home. thats just my opinion, and i know there will always be problems with regulating and enforcing it as the authorities really do have alot more serious crimes to deal with in most cases, but you've got to start somewhere...
I think it should be illegal for people to breed cats. There are simply thousands more homeless cats out there than turtles, and everyone makes such a big stinky deal out of baby turtles. I just don't get it.
i disagree because even if there was 1 or 1000 turtles being treated badly or homeless, it still should not be happening. Also, this is a reptile forum so of course people will be talking about turtles and i think it just shows that people care about them so much.
Well there simply are infinitely more cat lovers out there than turtle lovers. And even in a perfect world, not every single animal, or turtle in this case, is going to be treated properly, and as soon as people realize that there will be less of these pointless debates. And I don't see why people don't care about the thousands of cats that are "assembly line" euthanized, yet when one turtle must be put down for the same reason as a thousand cats do, such a big deal is made.
well i think the reason cats arent being discussed at all on this forum... is because its REPTILE forum and last i checked CATS arent REPTILES! which is why we are talking bout turtles... not to mention there are alot more groups working to save/rescue/control cats than there are for turtles... there are groups that go catch feral cats and fix them, people who run cat rescues and such but you dont see that with turtles... i have never heard of a turtle rescue before... yet there are tons of cat rescues...
There's not many separate tortoise and turtle rescue groups, mainly it's just reptile rescue groups that take them in. There is Turtle Love Ranch (their site is messed up) and groups that are part of California Turtle & Tortoise Club http://www.tortoise.org/ (click on the CTTC section too) I think there may be a few more too, either not in my bookmarks or I forgot the organization names.
There is one in Canada but I do not remember what it is called, I got my two maps at that size (there is no shell size law in Canada fyi), they are going strong, one is about 13cm and the other about 10cm. Very cute I might add, I will try and post some picture if I can find my camera...
Thats correct there is no shell size law in Canada. And in Alberta, petstores aren't even allowed to sell turtles of any species, only tortoises.
I was at a reptile show and they had a whole container with tons of, mississipy map, florida softshells,and red ears. they were alll VERY small a couple were about an inch.
just to let you know in chinatown the sell turtles for food...not pets...thats how china wiped our their native turtle populations
