Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i watched this amazing, heartbreaking documentary last night about one man's quest to save over a thousand endangered turtles and tortoises, some extinct in the wild. really shows how much the world at large doesn't care much about endangered wildlife if it ain't cute and fuzzy, and it also shows how government agencies seem more interested in enforcing rules than in preserving lives.

http://www.thechancesoftheworldchanging.org/

highly recommended. i tried looking up information about richard ogust, and what he might be doing now, but couldn't find anything. do any of you know anything about him?

I met Richard back in the 90's and then worked with him at the first meeting to creat the Turtle Survival Alliance in 1999. The Forth Worth Zoo hosted a meeting of 200 turtle and tortoise exsperts from around the world to address the "Asian Turtle crises".Only 8 of us were from the private sector,the rest were from Zoos and members of other world wide big time Conservation groups. He was a private sector person like myself. I have to say although his heart was in the right place his personal plan was a mis/un-guided failure from the beginning. He inhaireted money, and lived in a Manhattan highrise.(were the Mt.Tortoises he got from me had a 9 story view of NY from a balcony.) He collected rare and common turtles from the Chinese areas of town that were going to be served up as food. He had more than 1200 turtles their before he was kicked out. He got money from others and went through his and theirs trying to build a reserve. Well the turtles were to much for him to keep they got sick, people lost intrest, he spent all his time and resources fighting city hall and it failed. That was the most depressing show about turtles I've ever seen and it reflected very badly on the herp community. I dont recomend anyone watching it,it was poorly produced and kreepy. Sorry for the harshness, but it is only a documentation of how a pure emotional concept of animal saviorism will fail. I dont know what he is doing now but I wish him well. Vic M

well, i'll agree with you that it's depressing, and the word "hoarder" crept into my head more than once while watching it, wondering what kind of quality of life his collection had due to their sheer numbers. and as i tell myself any time i see a poorly-cared for tortoise in a pet store, craigslist, etc., or a live frog or turtle in a chinese grocery store, "you can't save them all." and in buying these animals, you support the business that in turn will only buy more of them. the opinions that some of his collegues expressed in the film, that he took on far too much, i agree with. his emotions clouded his judgement, perhaps, but his intentions were born from a kindness that too many people seem to lack. still, while difficult to watch at times, i did enjoy it. one of the ideas it seemed to convey is that it probably will be up to individuals to save some of these species, and i thought perhaps it would resonate with some of you.

You nailed it. He ended up enabling the enemy. You cant save all the mistreated turtles eather like you said. We can only try to do a good job keeping them and educating the public. I never heard of him breeding anything. Now we have a new Government in Post America that wants us to stop doing just that. "When turtles are outlawed only outlaws will have turtles" * A bumper sticker by Jeff Gee 1987. To the HSUS... When you pry my cold dead hands.... Vic Morgan............pic caption........Breed Asian turtles

the film showed eggs and hatchlings he had, and one entertaining shot showed a grunting male of some small species chasing a female around, so i guess he did at least a little breeding.

as an aside, the urge to "rescue" was what got me my pet redfoot, in the long run. years ago i saw an ornate wood turtle in a bone-dry enclosure with little water and no food in a chain pet store which shall remain nameless,so i asked that they please moisten his enclosure and top off his water. on a return visit to check on him, he looked much better (especially his skin) and was more active. i was taken in with the fellow, and even took my boyfriend to see him. someone else bought him before i finally decided to make the plunge, though.

while researching thecare of the wood turtle, i learned more about turtles and tortoises in general, and decided on a redfoot after someone else bought the wood turtle. i placed my order with abbott's turtle farm and the rest was history.

Its an interesting watch but it focuses too much on Richard and not enough on the turtles cause. I felt it dived far too much into the eccentricity of the moment and could have been a great educational piece on the ecological peril of turtles & tortoises globally.

Why not. I heard that complaint when the original was aired. I saw him as a passionate chelonian keeper who spared no expense to his passion... and I get the impression it cost him.

Ironicly... the city nailed him and when he tried to start up Tweksbury... he got nailed again... on... what I see as stupid technicalities... it was destined to fail... and could have brought a good amount of revenue to the state in terms of conservation advertisement on a world wide scale.

I only met him once but I got the impression his heart is in the proper place.

>>Its an interesting watch but it focuses too much on Richard and not enough on the turtles cause. I felt it dived far too much into the eccentricity of the moment and could have been a great educational piece on the ecological peril of turtles & tortoises globally.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Can't disagree. My comments were more about the directors. I enjoyed it. In fact, I have a couple of cameos in the documentary as I helped them move from Tribeca to Tewksbury. It was an amazing idea with less fortunate outcome.