Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well the little tortoise is doing fine, I contacted a parks & wildlife rehab person 3-4 days ago & never received a phone call back. I contacted tp&w do get the number to a rehab person, they gave me the number, told me the tortoise is threatened duhhhh & its illegal to have or I guess help such species.They then told me they would rehab it & if an owner could not be found to take care of it they would euthanize it, can you believe that. The animal is supposedly endangered/threatened but they may have to kill it!!!!!!!!!!! what an oxymoron statement

Hola Jeff,
I found an owl South of Marfa several years ago. He had been hit by a car and his wing was busted up. Other than that, he seemed fine. I called the Game Warden who was a friend of mine. He said it was OK to hang on to it until Mon. until we could contact a rehab person (this was on a Thurs.). I borrowed a cage from a friend and put the owl inside. I got him to take three mice over the weekend and he seemed fine other than a limp wing. Well to make a long story short, we took it to a vet. in nearby town (probably the only vet there so I won't name the town). I told them I had been feeding it and they said they'd see what they could do. Two days later, I came back to check on it and guess what; they had given it the needle. All they told me was that his wing had been broken and he would have never made it in the wild. SO!?! put it in some education program or something or I would have even kept it. I told them (with a few explitives) that I could have taken it to a rehab some place else. They told me that I couldn't keep it because it was illegal. Daa!, so you kill it? I know the law is the law but what about common sense? I'm no animal rights activist by any stretch of the term, but hell, kill it to protect it? Now that makes sense.
They should have at least let me cook it and see what owl tastes like! (thats a joke, btw)

JPenney
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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

I'd tell them what to do with themselves and take the tortoise home. You can probably find someone with a permit who can rehab it at least for the sake of keeping it alive til they decide what to do with injured and deformed animals like that. Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands.

I know a guy who has rehabbed a full grown completely blind snapping turtle since it was a hatchling. There is no rason someone else cannot do the same thing with the tortoise. Have you ever thought about applying for the appropriate permits to keep them in the future ? I know for a fact plenty of people keep these guys as pets with in their range. Good Luck with the guy............Scott wahlberg
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Edited on December 8, 2003 at 09:42:58 by phwyvern.