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Ever wonder where those nice healthy adult NAWTs that you see at trade shows come from? This is from today's Herpdigest.com newsletter.

3) Man Sentenced For Turtle Trafficking
By The Associated Press, The Charleston Gazette, 12/10/09
Martinsburg, W.Va. -- A Florida reptile dealer has been sentenced to one year of home confinement over a plot to smuggle more than 100 turtles out of West Virginia for sale elsewhere.

Michael Ellard of Estero, Fla., was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg. Along with two others, Ellard pleaded guilty to violations of the Lacey Act, which prohibits trade in wildlife that have been illegally obtained. The three were arrested traveling to Florida from West Virginia with 108 wood turtles, four Eastern box turtles and six snapping turtles.

Along with home confinement, Ellard will pay $12,000 in restitution.

Hmmm...$12,000 fine, that's about $114/NAWT. What is the street value of an adult NAWT?

Here is a link to a more thorough article concerning the illegal harvest of 108 North American Wood Turtles (NAWTs) for sale in the pet trade:
http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=7A72BF11-BB33-6D9F-C7D31BEDC30C6485

Here is a nice picture of some of the 108 wild NAWTs that were confiscated:
http://www.fws.gov/Northeast/images/feature/turtles.jpg

Here is also a nice picture of the collector from a website showing, "34 people who have influenced the herp industry in Florida.":
http://www.corn-utopia.com/Corn%20Utopia%20on%20the%20Web/Herpers%20Past%20&%20Present/Commercial%20Herpers%20of%20Florida.htm

And here is a link to an article in the Broward County News detailing how this collector, "...visits countries that are closed to exports under CITES and "lobbies" government officials to allow him to start sending out the first legal shipments of a given species. "You tell them how much you want to take out and that you are not going to be detrimental to the population," says Ellard, adding that many countries are arbitrarily closed to live-animal exports, even when a given species may not be endangered. "Paraguay was closed, and I got the first shipments out last year. The only problem is that, once you open a place up, within six or eight months, everybody's jumped in." Here's the link:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/1999-02-04/news/cold-blooded-smuggling/5

Great stuff, huh? When was the last time YOU saw a NAWT in the wild? Think about it.

Depends where the street is. Here in Japan, I know a store that has a sub-adult female for over $3500 (yes, US dollars). I've never seen an adult here go for less than $1600. Babies have been going for $600-900 lately.

Thanks for posting this. Hopefully this guy is put out of business permanently. This is the type of story (and person) that ruins it for everybody, and even makes me feel bad about owning a couple legally permitted captives bred animals. They all came from the wild at some point, which means unscrupulous people like this likely profited at some point. Depressing, but again I'm glad to see these stories spread around.

True, we need to buy captive bred but like you said they all come from the wild at some point. It's not all bad to cull the population once in awhile. This can cause stronger bloodlines as well as nicer looking animals thanks to low popululation line breeding. Not to mention healthier specimens due to less competition. It seems like for every weak specimen you "prune" out of a specific habitat two stronger specimens appear.So lets just make sure we are seeing all sides of a bad situation.

J.Davis
"i will force feed you knowledge"