Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What's up turtle fans,

Here's my dilemna. Our nonprofit reptile rescue works with pet reptiles that need new homes. We're not normally a wildlife rehabber or relocator. Rather, we work with captive reptiles from the pet trade that need to stay in captivity. This week is an exception to the rule, however.

We are located in Pennsylvania, and someone recently called us about a turtle they had taken from the wild in Florida. These people were not knowledgable about reptiles at all (they identified the turtle as a "land turtle" and it turned out to be a water turtle, probably a FL Red-Belly). I am not sure if they were being 100% truthful about the situation either. First the story was that they took the turtle out of the wild, then the story changed to "friends of theirs" took it out of the wild. From what I gathered, I don't think it's been out of the wild for more than a month.

In any case, we have the turtle at the rescue now and we're trying to figure out what to do with it - whehter we should place it in a captive home, or attempt to release it back into the wild.

I am wondering, however, if it is too late to release it back into the wild if:

A.) we don't know exactly WHERE it was taken from in FL, so we'd probably be releasing it outside of its home range.

B.) if it's only been in captivity for a few weeks, should we worry about introducing new bacterias, etc. back into the wild if we release it?

I am hoping to gather thoughts from a few intelligent "turtle minds", so your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
Find out how YOU can get involved in reptile rescue...
www.forgottenfriend.org

Hi Jesse, this is Brandon W. from Ohio. I just e-mailed you back a moment ago. Now I see why you said this one was going back to Florida. I'm not sure what to say. I have heard that once it is removed, it should never be let go, I don't know how true that is (and I'm sure each case is different due to the quite a few variables). That most likely is a "better safe than sorry" kind of deal.

Now, being as no one is sure how long it has been out of the wild, I would play it safe if possible, and place it in a good home. That's my honest advice. Now, red bellies tend to be a little agressive, and if it is still showinf aggression and some other healthy traits, if may do just fine, that would be a judgement call you would have to make. I myself would play it safe so long as I could, and I believe you can at this point. You have my offer, just let me know what you end up doing. Take car.

Oh, I meant "take care" but I think that goes without saying. Anyhow, also you are right, the odds of getting it back to where it was taken, whenever it was actually taken. I have also always been told that it is best to return the animal as close as you can to its original home.

Here's the update on we decided to do with this big turtle. A friend in Florida has offered to add the turtle to a natural pond they have on their land. The way it is set up, the animals can't leave, so it would not technically be reintroducing it back into the wild. In fact they regularly feed the turtles in this pond to supplement their natural diet from the pond. Yet it is still a natural pond that has many other turtles, fish, and other creatures, so it won't be confining a wild animal to captivity. So it's sort of the best of both worlds.
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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
Find out how YOU can get involved in reptile rescue...
www.forgottenfriend.org

Now that sounds like a good idea.

Glad things worked out well. Rereleasing this animal to the wild was not a good option. When the information is too sketchy as to where, when and how the animal was gotten you really can't realease them. You really do need to have a solid history and location on an animal before you consider returning it to the wild.

This is best scenaric for the creature though. "monitored" freedom

Steve

The one thing that annoyed me about this experience more than anything else is that the people who removed the turtle from the wild kept saying they were "animal lovers". And they kept lying to me and changing their story. And they kept blowing off their drop-off appointments without so much as a phone call.

OK I lied. There were THREE things that annoyed me the most about this experience.
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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary

www.forgottenfriend.org

Edited on August 3, 2006 at 17:00:30 by phwyvern.

I am so glad that you have found such a perfect solution for this turtle. The best of both worlds for the turtle, that's terrific!

I feel your annoyance too. Sometimes when people tell me that they love animals I just cringe.
I know some people truly do love them & that those people know how to care for them and will make every effort to do so responsibly...but usually when I hear those words I think it's code for, "I FEEL this about them but I am not willing to DO anything that actually helps them." Learning takes effort, that's too hard for some people.

My neighbors feed their dog a penny once a year because they believe the copper in it will stave off worms. AS IF pennies still have copper in them like they used to but worse where in the world did they hear such an ignorant thing? WHY would they believe it? Feed them pennies then you've got a dog full of pennies AND worms!
The woman told me once she has an uncle who has a big turtle (no clue what kind) & he feeds it bread.
I can't tell them anything because they don't ever believe me, instead they believe every old wives tale in the book.
And these people have told me over & over that they LOVE animals!

I may be wrong to think this way but I do because I've personally met so many more people who are irresponsible than responsible.
Apparently I need to associate with a better class of people!
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PHRatz

Well said and you are not wrong. In doing rescue you see all sorts of things like this. People with grossly deformed turtles from years of neglect and poor diet and think the animal is perfectly fine.

You don't know how many sulcata calls we get each and I wish I dollar for everytime I hear "He's grown up so nice and healthy -- he has those huge pretty lumps all over his shell." Or the guy who kept his EASTERN box turtle in a fish tank (set up for aquatic turtles) for 8 years.

What I find most amazing is how so many animals manage to survive despite peoples attempts to kill them (out of ignorance).

Steve

Thank you Steve,
It's nice when people understand what I mean. I sometimes get critisized for my attitude but the thing is I don't buy pets instead I've taken in several needy ones because I was able to do that. I feel like I've taken in other people's trash because that's all they thought of their own pets. To whoever threw them away they were nothing but trash to be gotten rid of when the people got bored. That has slanted my view of things I suppose.
Most of our pets have problems, many of them aren't pretty & I have wondered how it is they managed to survive the previous mistreatment.
I know what you mean about sulcata torts. Our sulcata is still very pyramided but she looked much worse the day we took her in than she does now. It just kills me when I get comments from people who don't know any better, they think her shiny lumpy shell is beautiful. Yeah the lumps mean she's deformed & the shiny stuff is covering her bullet holes. :::groan:::

The only turtle we have that we got on purpose is our CB western painted who was the first one, we bought him in 1994. Then in '95 I entered vet-tech school, it was during school and after when so many others began to come my way.
We never planned to have any more, the rest just happened.
Over the last 10-11 years I've just been blown away by what I've seen in the real world which I think is probably basically the same type of things that people who run rescues/rehabs/sanctuaries have seen. Oy ...I could gripe for days but I'll stop now. I must've woken up on the chatty-gripey side this morning..
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PHRatz