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I was wondering how people can sell baby turtles because I thought there was a law that they had to be at lease 4 inches long.?

-Patty

>>I was wondering how people can sell baby turtles because I thought there was a law that they had to be at lease 4 inches long.?
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>>-Patty

They are doing it illegally that is how. You can only sell to a bona fide educational institution (like a zoo, nature center, research facility). Selling to someone who wants one for a pet is not acceptable by federal regulations (no matter how much parent says it's a learning/educational experience for a child or whatever - a person is not an institution).

Enforcement of the law is hit or miss on whether DNR officials crack down on those people selling. Some states are pretty good at keeping up with it while others are very lax - it's mostly how much money they have to be going around checking out stores, tips, etc. Occasionally officials raid reptile shows and get those who are selling and buying them. Starting to get more common since you can hit more people at one place than scattered everywhere. Some officials are at the point of running online stings to get people who are breaking the laws regarding reptiles (though they tend to focus on endangered species in that instance).
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PHWyvern

>>Enforcement of the law is hit or miss on whether DNR officials crack down on those people selling. Some states are pretty good at keeping up with it while others are very lax - it's mostly how much money they have to be going around checking out stores, tips, etc. Occasionally officials raid reptile shows and get those who are selling and buying them. Starting to get more common since you can hit more people at one place than scattered everywhere. Some officials are at the point of running online stings to get people who are breaking the laws regarding reptiles (though they tend to focus on endangered species in that instance).

Three years ago we went to a county fair in the county next door to us. Inside the largest exhibit building where people had booths to sell everything you can think of from candy to faucets was a woman with a 10 gallon tank loaded with hatchling RES. They were in half an inch of water, climbing all over each other with no heat while the air conditioner blasted cold air in.
That woman stood there & told me there is no way they have Salmonella because they're farmed.
YEAH that made sense lol.

I found a police officer, told him my complaint then he pointed me to the business office of the fair. I filed a written formal complaint, they in turn called the game warden who is the representative of state law enforcement aka the state Parks & Wildlife dept. RES are native to this state so they would fall under the jurisdiction of the game warden.

I was called by someone in the fair's business office the next day & the man told me that the game warden had shut her down but ONLY because her permit was expired. If her permit had not been expired she would have been allowed to continue to sell hatchling RES, 1 inch turtles, as pets not educational animals.
Six months later in another nearby but very small town in the opposite direction a huge trade days event was taking place. This tiny town has a giant sized trade days event 3 times per year with 500 or more venders.. there she was, the same woman. She was at the trade days selling her hatchling "Salmonella free farm raised" 1 inche RES. Then the next week my vet was throwing a fit because she had an influx of sick baby RES to treat because her clients had bought them at the trade days & they were dying.

In late 2005 a teenager I know got 2 hatchling turtles that were being sold in a kiosk along with hermit crabs at a mall 120 miles away from here. His parents had bought them for him but they didn't realize the babies were sick.
Then at around the same time a new pet store opened in this town & they are selling 1 inch hatchling RES along with that stupid plastic bowl with a plastic palm tree stuck in the middle of it. They are telling people all you need is a light bulb to heat the plastic bowl & that's it.

If these turtle sellers were doing it responsibly, educating their buyers about the major effort it takes to raise a turtle and not treat it like a commodity....if they would tell people how to keep it in correct housing, proper food, lighting etc. but they don't care, all they want is a buck. Meanwhile the turtles are suffering.
IF these sellers were telling the truth to the buyers and actually cared about the turtles I might not feel so inclined to report them to law enforcement but.. to report them & then see that the game warden doesn't enforce the law, sheesh!
I am very frustrated.
I wonder too, what happened to the 4 inch law?
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PHRatz

I’m in Tallahassee Fl and we had those kiosks in our malls and a lot of people were complaining about them too. They were finally shut down after a woman from the newspaper fought to get them out. From my understanding of the situation, it is not the game warden or any kind of wild life officer who enforces it, but the Dept. of health. Since the nothing under 4in. rule is a law made because of the possible health issues, these are the people who you should try and seek out to complain too. Like I said im not 100% sure but I’m pretty sure that’s how it all worked out here.

Thanks! I'll check into whether or not the health dept. can do something about it.
My vet throws a fit over them not because people pay her to treat them but because people sell sick hatchlings or sell healthy ones that get sick because the people were given the wrong info on how to care for them. She doesn't like to see tiny babies die because it's too late to help them, so her anger is based in the same place mine is.
I need to ask her if she has any idea who it is you would report these violations to in this state.
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PHRatz