Steph, unfortunately the residents of my neighborhood have no remorse when it comes to wildlife. The problem I am faceing is this. If I go to the local pet store they also cary native turtles captured from the wild just at adulthood. If I was to pay for a person to hunt them like foxhounds what good would that do? I did check and I am allowed to "domesticate" two wild turtles but no more. I would only like to have one and only one. Unless I feel in the future that I can confedently atempt breeding. Then and only then would I concider getting another one. Although I would, in that case, contact a rescue center for his mate. Not a pet store.



I know of one store just around the corner that had for sale, until it became illigal to sell them, a pair of LA striped "zebra" water turtles. They are very endangered and extreamly difficult to care for. He now keeps them as his personal pets, not for sale. They cannot be released into the wild now. He told me how he came by them. A boy and his dad brought the pair to him after a trip to LA where they found them near a gas station in a stream. That is the blatant disreguard for their well being. The climate here is not suteable for them and they would certainly die if not carefully tended to.



My friend Terri was born here within 3 square miles I believe. I have let at least a dozen go on their marry way over the years but I happened to find Terri very special and of the ones I let go on I can only hope they made it. yet I see more and more empty shells all the time and I just couldn't bear the thought of that. I know let nature take its course, and I am all about that for the most part, if only it were nature I was worried about.



thank you

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