Rescue & Adoption

Notice:

Please note: After 17 years of rehoming more than 3,000 turtles and tortoise successfully, we will no longer handle adoptions or relinquishments. Please contact the organizations listed below that can help you find a new home or adopt the wonderful animal of your choice.

American Tortoise Rescue will be spending its time now exclusively advocating for turtles and tortoises just as we have in the past but with more fury. We will continue our crusade to stop the issues that affect them throughout the world, including habitat destruction, the live food markets in the US, the looming legislative issue allowing turtles and tortoises under four inches to be sold again after a 33-year ban and the cruel pet trade, among other problems.

We've had a great ride doing adoptions, but we feel that we can be more useful pressuring the bad guys, stopping cruelty and educating everyone about the care and feeding of these wonderful creatures. No other organization has been as aggressive in this particular fight as ATR, so by reducing the thousands of hours it takes to do adoptions, this will allow us even more time. This takes money, so please do not stop your generous donations from coming in. We will continue to house and care for the more than 100 turtles and tortoises who have found sanctuary with us.
Bless you,
Susan and Marshall.

Other sites that can help:
• www.swhs.org
• www.tortoise.org
• www.turtlehomes.org
• www.turtlebunker.com
• www.sdturtle.org
• www.tortoisetrust.org
• www.nytts.org
• www.indianaturtlecare.com

What brought Turtles and Tortoises to American Tortoise Rescue?

Our calls came from private individuals, public animal control/shelters, U.S. Fish & Wildlife confiscations, Department of Health Services, U.S. Park Service, California Wildlife Center, California Fish & Game and others. Many of the turtles and tortoises were injured or ill. Problems ranged from dog bites, amputations, upper respiratory infections, shell rot, starvation, stress, failure to thrive, run over by cars, parasites, worms, predator attacks, and other medical problems like liver and kidney diseases. Many of the conditions were caused by owners or ignorant individuals. Some were cruelty cases.
American Tortoise Rescue is now a permanent sanctuary to about 125 turtles and tortoises. A typical rescue: Yertle, a small sulcata from Wisconsin, came to California via overnight Fed-Ex. Yertle lived in someone's basement in a tank for three years with only a UV light for company. Tanks are horribly cruel and UV lights are pretty much useless compared to real sun; shell deformities occur without real sunlight. Yertle came to us deformed and hardly moving, but he adjusted well. He was subjected to a cruel life, but we are grateful that his owner realized the error of his ways and reached out to us. See other rescues on our Rescue Stories page.

What brought Turtles and Tortoises to American Tortoise Rescue?

We built a wonderful permanent sanctuary for the turtles and tortoises here in Malibu. The shelter is wild looking and natural. We rarely handle the turtles and tortoises, although we do sit on the ground with them, talk to them, and keep an eye out for the sick ones. Even though we treat them as wild animals and not pets, some run after us begging for food or worms, they sit down next to us and rub on us, or they just look up at us with their big, beautiful eyes.

The sick ones stay in the house in boxes, tanks, or office trash baskets turned on their sides with heating pads in them. They receive ointments, injections, tube feedings, etc. until they are well enough to move to the "playpen". This is a very large moveable wooden pen with chicken wire, where the ones who are just about to be released into the regular rescue go. We bring them in at night to keep them warm. Turtles and tortoises go down for the night about 4 p.m., giving us some time for phone calls and other work. The routine starts over again about 8 a.m. It's tough work, but very rewarding. Many of these animals would not survive otherwise. You too can help and enjoy working with these wonderful animals. If you are interested in volunteering, please see How to Volunteer.

• Asian box
• Blandings
• California desert tortoise
• California pond
• Chinese box
• Common three toed box
• Eastern box
• Elongata
• Gulf Coast box
• Hermann's
• Hingeback
• Leopard
• Mediterranean
• Ornate box
• Red eared slider
• Redfoot
• Russian
• Sulcata
• Texas tortoise
• Vietnamese leaf

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