Weird News
Related: About this forum1600 turtles escape from Georgia farm
SUMMERVILLE, Ga., July 19 (UPI) -- A Georgia turtle farmer says vandals allowed about 1,600 turtles to escape his farm.
Turtle grower David Driver called police last week to report fences made from metal barn siding had been torn down around his turtle ponds, allowing the turtles to break free, The Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press reported Thursday.
"It's been going on all summer long," Driver said Wednesday. "There was about 2,200 [turtles] over there. We lost 1,600 of them."
Driver traps turtles and brings them to his property in Chattooga County, where he breeds them, then sells the baby turtles to either pet-growing operations in Florida or to people in China, where they are raised for food.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/07/19/1600-turtles-escape-from-Georgia-farm/UPI-50961342708254/#ixzz215alRTvO
FREE SPEEDY! (that was the name of every box turtle I caught as a kid)
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I have raised them for a headstarting program, and those buggers get around!
And...being a turtle lover, I am rooting for the people taking those fences down. If this guy is trapping them in the wild and keeping them captive just to sell the babies, I have no sympathy for him. We do not need to remove turtles from the wild for the pet trade, or worse.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)csziggy
(34,120 posts)Published: Feb. 2, 2012 at 11:39 PM
ATLANTA, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Turtles are not appropriate pets in households with young children or other high risk individuals, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said high risk individuals include pregnant women, older people and people with weak immune systems.
The report describes a U.S. outbreak of 132 human Salmonella infections between August 2010 and September 2011, associated with exposure to small turtles.
"Many of the infections occurred in young children. Salmonella infections in children may be severe and can result in hospitalization," the report said. "A 1975 federal prohibition against the sale of small turtles -- those with shell lengths less than 4 inches -- led to a substantial decline in human Salmonella infections. However, these infections continue to occur. Increasing enforcement of existing regulations against the sale of small turtles, increasing penalties for illegal sales, and enacting more state and local laws regulating the sale of small turtles can assist in decreasing infections from these reptiles."
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2012/02/02/Small-turtles-inappropriate-pets-for-kids/UPI-76911328243985/#ixzz21VMmdYuX
slampoet
(5,032 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)It was a scrap metal thief, apparently--if his fences had been made of plastic or wood, he'd have been ok...
Kaleva
(36,146 posts)The true story of how 1600 turtles held in captivity managed to make a run for freedom with the help of a sympathetic metal stealing outsider.
MADem
(135,425 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)(inspired by a line from The Simpsons)