Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got an email from a group I'm on & it said a woman in the neighboring town 17 or so miles away had found a small sulcata on the highway near her home, she's had it for a month and cannot find an owner anywhere. I replied & now I've spoken to her on the phone.
Turns out we work at the same college, what a small world!

I wonder though does this mean the owner dumped the tortoise? From what I hear it's very pyramided so that says to me that the owner didn't know how to care for it.
I hate knowing that people are dumping these tortoises, mine was dumped. If someone really wants them they'll advertise that they're lost & nobody did that with mine, nobody is doing that with the one she's found.
Anyway she can't keep it in a small home with 4 dogs, she says it's a little one only about 3-4 pounds. I don't want it because I just don't have room for another, not with all these turtles we have & plus at the moment I don't have a way to quarantine a newbie.
So I set it up for the woman to drop it off with my vet. The vet can quarantine, she has several acres of land where the hospital sits just outside the city limits & plenty of room in the hospital or at her home to quarantine this baby. She has sulcatas of her own so I know she knows what to do with it.
I can't wait to see it though. I'd love to keep it myself but I want what's best for it & I feel like the best thing for it at the moment is to stay with the doctor.

A friend of a friend has a male sulcata that he found wandering around out in the country, then last year I heard from a dog groomer that she saw one & tried to pick it up but it scared her so she didn't. We searched that area to find it but never did.
Gawd it just galls me to know that people do dump them around here & it makes me wonder just how many are out there?
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PHRatz

My big male was allegedly found in the desert in southern California. Someone found him and brought him to the reptile store I rescued him from.

The City of Fullerton drained a park lake here in southern California last year, and in it they found a 100 lb snapping turtle (named him Old Bob) and about 150 other non-native turtles (mostly sliders I hear). Now I guess it is possible that the turtles have been breeding...but I would guess that more than half were dumped there.

Currently there is a lake in Los Angeles that has an alligator (named Reggie)in it that they have been trying to catch for a while. They have arrested the dumper, and confiscated another alligator, a snapping turtle, a dessert tortoise and some rattle snakes (I think).

People do this kind of stuff all the time. I went to a reptile show this weekend and there was guy there selling baby tutles with those cute little plastic tubs with the palm tree in the middle. Every one of those turtles is going to wind up dead or dumped in five years.

It is all very sad.

I've read news stories about Reggie but I hadn't heard until you said it that the dumper has been arrested. Glad to hear that!
I know that people dump their animals all the time, it's never ending but it still galls me to know how often it happens.

I know someone who had snapping turtles, captive bred snapping turtles, the people moved away I found out later that the turtles have been dumped in a lake. :::sigh:::
I think our lovebird that we caught in the backyard was dumped & I think that because she's bratty. I think her owners couldn't handle a bratty bird but most parrots are kind of bratty so what else would you expect?
I tried for 6 weeks to find an owner, never could so she's been here for a year now.
I met a person who has a baseball sized hermit crab, he found it walking around outside. The dry desert isn't their native habitat, another dumped pet.

It is never ending & it happens nationwide, it's illegal to do that nationwide but it happens all the time. It's so frustrating!
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PHRatz