Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there, we live in Connecticut and (long story sort of short) someone gave me a painted turtle that her father wild caught back in April. I in turn gave it to a friend of mine. She tried to do the right thing and took the turtle to a vet for a checkup as we thought he had his eyes closed too much and was sort of floaty in the water. Well, the vet seized the turtle and said it was illegal to keep painted turtles. I was put on the phone with her and she stated that it is illegal to take wildlife and keep it as a pet. While I agree that the wild should stay in the wild, this guy had been in a tank since April so we didnt think we were doing anything wrong. I cannot find a single reference to painteds being illegal to keep in CT or a reference on the state of ct's website regarding the illegality of taking wildlife from the wild at all. Does anyone know if this is true. I feel like this turtle was stolen from my friend. (I know that technically he was stolen from the wild but...) I just want to know what law she was breaking if there even is one. She even threatened to have my friend arrested. What did this teach us? Dont take your turtle to the vet!

Anyway, anyone with any info if you could respond that would be great.

Thanks,
Carole
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www.reptilecare.com

Hi all, she is getting the turtle back as DEP was contacted. It isnt illegal and the vet might be fined. Talk about abuse of power.

Carole
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www.reptilecare.com

I have an old copy of state herp law 'summaries' and back in 1997 it was legal to own painted turtles.

Actually the way the full laws are written it's pretty easy to get confused. I tried sorting through it and it's a total mess to say the least in trying to make heads or tails of anything. Your best bet on getting ahold of proper answers is probably to contact:

Bureau of Natural Resources
Wildlife Division
Office Directory

Franklin Swamp WMA
391 Route 32
N. Franklin, CT 06254

Phone: (860) 642-7239

(according to a website he deals with non-harvested animals such as reptiles and amphibians)

http://dep.state.ct.us/burnatr/wildlife/wdhome.htm
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PHWyvern

Thank you very very much. The DEP did step in and we got the turtle back. The problem is it is still a sick turtle. I thought it was deficient going into the vet (from previous owner) and it certainly is. It crashed fast tho. When I got it last week it was swimming around and eating its shrimp things and a piece of mealworm even. We put it under the correct lighting and in a bit more water. Then it seemed to crash? Would getting the proper light and heat make him crash? We have him back now but his eyes are swollen shut and he is pretty listless. I have talked to a couple of people about tubing him and htey say it is useless cause he is so little we will do more damage to him than good. I do not want to watch him die. Obviously bringing him back to this vet is not a good idea as the DEP thing went down pretty badly and left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

ANY advice appreciated.

Carole
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www.reptilecare.com

Are you using city tap water? If you have tap water, let it sit for a day or so, the added chemicals may be making it sick. A little natural sunshine helps too. How many days did the vet have it? Did he feed the turtle? Maybe he did something to upset it? Please post and let us know how it is going!

Also please don't use bleach or cleaners on the turtles things, they can be very sensitive to their environments-don't spray air freshners near them or anything that could land in the water. Also don't add plants to the tank unless you know it is turtle safe. Some house plants are poisonous.

Your vet sounds like a flippin' idiot.
Only I don't really mean "flippin'"!