Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Wonder what impact this will have on turtle farming
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This with a link to the CDC website and articles.
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"The agency suspects this is because the turtles are still permitted for use in scientific, educational or exhibition purposes."

No, the real reason is because most people don't know the regulations, the sellers don't educate the buyers and the buyers don't educate themselves, and local authorities refuse to do anything in the rare instances when it is reported.

The FDA regs state that the turtles cannot be sold in connection with a business to the public as pets, unless for "bona fide" educational, scientific, or exhibition purposes. The FDA DOES NOT consider a pet store or mall kiosk to be "bona fide". End of story. Even if a vendor has a sign stating "for educational purposes only", guess what? The FDA still says it's illegal because it's not for "bona fide" (i.e. educational institution).

I do rescue/adoption. 90% of the owner-surrendered sliders were sold illegally as hatchlings, mostly in tourist spots. The biggest violators, in terms of where the surrendered turtles come from, are Myrtle Beach, SC, tourist stores, NYC Chinatown, the state of Florida (roadside sales and mall kiosks), turtlesale.com, and local flea markets/carnivals. These are all illegal sales in the eyes of the FDA.

Maybe if the authorities would focus on enforcing the laws and regulations that are already out there, we wouldn't have this problem, and they'd worry less about our hobby.

In MD, anyone selling reptiles has to post a specific salmonella warning sign within three feet of the reptile. It's a simple thing, easy to do (you can print one out yourself), easy to enforce. If there's no sign, the animals don't get confiscated, the seller gets a warning or fine and has to put up the sign. Why not do it in other states?

Katrina

That article was released is propaganda...
In a couple months the Senate will be passing a bill to allow the sell of baby turtles. The AG industry has long such opposed the selling of these animals and is probably the largest lobbyist against because in the past it was learned that they were part of the salmonella problem because they were supplying salmonella infected food to the turtle farmers.So instead of adressing the real problem, Poutry ,fish meat contamination..they banned the sale of baby turtles as a scapegoat. The original biologist who did the study resigned over this.
Let's do the math 2-4million turtles kept as pets..CDC had less than 100 reported cases of salmonella from turtles. Big problems...LOL did you know Dogs and Cats are responsible for over 400,000 trips to the emergency room a year from attacks , bites and disease....a good portion of which are children..
Where's the laws banning cats and dogs...
ExtremeHogs.com

Are you sure that the vote for S.540 is coming up for a vote? The Louisiana Turtle Farmers, hobbyists and breeders are all supporting this in addition to H.R.924 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senate version was written bt David Vitter, a Republican, and Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, both from Louisiana. I was afraid that David Vitter's personal problems were going to derail the legislation. If EVERYBODY would call their local Herp Organizations and their congressional delegation, We could get S.540 and H.R.924 to the floor and get them passed. This was an unpaid political announcement. ~Bill Watts~