ARIZONA REPUBLIC (Phoenix) 19 May 08 Ban on turtles needed

When cute little pet turtles lose their aww factor, well-meaning but misguided people dump them in the pond at the Phoenix Zoo.

And the threat to Arizona wildlife goes up another notch.

These turtles, whose natural habitat doesn't extend this far west, thrive so well here that they pose a threat to our native ones.

The Arizona Game & Fish Department recently held its annual turtle catch at the zoo to monitor the problem. The non-native females were removed, which will keep the population from growing.

The turtles were trapped in nets with half-open sardine cans as bait. Then they were measured, weighed and counted. Males were marked with notches in their shells, so that they can be identified in future roundups.

The males were returned to the pond, where they're a popular sight for visitors. The females went to the Phoenix Herpetological Society, to live in its sanctuary or be adopted.

This year's catch had 90 turtles, and only one was native to Arizona, a mud turtle. There were 82 red-eared sliders, the kind that are commonly sold as pets.

Red-eared sliders are native to the southern-middle section of the United States, where a wide range of predators keep them in check. They eat a wide range of food, lay lots of eggs and, when they get loose in Arizona, outcompete the local turtles.

Phoenix Zoo officials are worried that the sliders will reproduce so much that they overwhelm the carrying capacity of the pond, get out into the canal systems and spread through natural waterways.

Don't blame the critters.

"It's not their fault they were brought to this part of the country, where they cause problems," says Paula Swanson, the zoo's manager of reptiles.

Should turtles be household pets at all?

Only for people who understand that turtles grow to be a foot wide, live for decades and require a large, escape-proof enclosure with water and basking places.

Turtles carry salmonella, the bacteria that can cause deadly infections in humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of turtles with shells smaller than 4 inches in 1975.

The concern was that the tiny reptiles were easy for little children to handle and put in their mouths.

But you can still find people hawking baby turtles and other pets on roadsides around Arizona.

The Arizona Legislature is close to passing a bill, House Bill 2485, that would prohibit the sale of pets on highways, streets and parks.

That's a good first step.

Next, we should consider what Florida did to protect its native turtles: Last July, it prohibited the sale of red-eared sliders.
Ban on turtles needed

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