BURNABY NOW (British Columbia) 12 January 11 Man comes forward on releasing pet turtles (Jennifer Moreau)
We received a note from a man who grew up in Burnaby and told us he released a couple of turtles in Deer Lake decades ago when he was a kid.
The issue of pet turtles in local lakes has come up while we've been covering the endangered Western painted turtle and the Burnaby Lake dredging project over the past couple of years.
There are two kinds of turtles in both Burnaby Lake and Deer Lake: the indigenous (and endangered) Western painted turtle and the red-eared slider, which is an invasive species that was likely introduced to the lakes by people dumping pet turtles. (A diamond-back terrapin and a Chinese pond turtle have also been spotted in Burnaby Lake, both were likely abandoned pets.)
Now, we have this man, (who shall remain nameless since he thinks one would get arrested for such behaviour today) saying his mom made him give up his pet turtles, a female and male, because of worries about salmonella.
The U.S. banned selling turtles that were smaller than four inches in 1975 because of salmonella scares. Apparently, that size was chosen since it's harder for kids to put the turtles in their mouths (and contract salmonella) when they are bigger than four inches.
So our contact is not sure where his turtles came from - he was only a kid then - but he says they had some red by their eyes, so they would likely be the red-eared slider variety, the kind most often found in pet stores.
I doubt he's the only one responsible for introducing the red-eared slider in local lakes, but with the salmonella concerns, there were likely other worried parents dumping their kids' turtles.
Man comes forward on releasing pet turtles