Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just saw an add that a guy is selling 100 female adult diamondbacks for 1000 bucks sounds pretty fishy. Where do you find 100 females and sell them for 10 bucks each.

China Town most likely.

Where did you see this article...I study diamondbacks in MD, and do a lot of data on the commercial harvest. I would love to see if some of my tagged animals are part of this. please let me know. thanks

It was ad on kingsnake in the classifieds. Thats really ashame if they were 100 wc female adults. Makes me real angry thinking about it.

thousands go through the food markets in Chinatown here in New York before they stop harvesting in May.

It's awful that they are harvested out of control but on the other side of the coin those 100 you saw for sale are not going into a soup pot. It still is a shame and the harvesting should be monitored better.

Man that really pisses me off, wish the chinnese would go harvest crap in their own country, and stay out of ours. I guess I was being nieve that this doesn't go on, never thought dbt were harvested though. Pretty fired up

Well in many cases this IS their country and they are not doing the harvesting here only the purchasing (which I might add many fine restaurants do as well) (those that carry turtle soup on the menu). The fisherman in the Chesapeake Bay harvest the turtles.

It is very sad to see but it is not looked at the way we see it.

It is no more to the people selling them than selling a fish, shrimp, lobster or crabs. Just more seafood.

Not trying to defend or make any excuses -- just trying to lay it out in black and white here.

As far as harvesting in Asia. Many species are in danger of extinction in Asian countries because of overharvesting.

Many also go to North Carolina and Virginia since both states restricted harvesting.

If you buy them from the wholesale in quanity and by the box (20 terrapins) you can get thousands of DBTs. However, the quality of them is real nasty. Might get one concentric in every 2 boxes, and you might get 3 to 4 keepers in every box. The rest will have injuries, intestinal infections, injuries and infections, or prolapses. That is why those who purchased them from me got quality, but I paid more for the right to pick through the boxes. This person obviously does not. If you bought from him 50% would likely die on you. I now folks who buy by the box to release them. That is 50% die after treatment within a month. Out of hundreds sold, I had reported only 3 deaths. Same statistic with china town rescues.

Part of the problem is internal. They are takin from 75 degree turtles and stuck in a refrigerator at 40 degrees, immediately. If you not careful checking them, you will not notice inflamation of the intestinal track caused by decaying food and gass pressures that result in long term intestinal damage. This is the most important thing that I must check for while purchasing them.

Mark Ledbetter