Tortoise Rescue Breaking News

Letters to the editor - please send your too!

Thanks to the Times for exposing a problem turtle rescuers like us have bugged legislators about for years. We have made countless trips to Fish & Game Commission meetings and met with various high profile people to no avail in an effort to stop this cruel trade in turtles. Take a trip yourself down to LA’s Chinatown or to Asian markets in San Gabriel. Turtles are slaughtered fully conscious -- their shells are cut from their bodies while they are still alive. In these markets, dozens of turtles are piled in dirty buckets with no water, food or shade. The turtles on the bottom are often crushed, dying or dead. Our department of health and other state and federal agencies have ignored pleas to stop the sales even though the turtles are heavily infected with communicable diseases like salmonella and pasturella, as well as parasites. The real story that neither your writer nor legislators want to reveal is why our request for a ban has fallen on deaf ears. Politics. Our politicians are scared to death to enact a law that would affect voters in Asian communities throughout the state. We ourselves have been called racists more than once because we want to ban this practice. The world should be a better place for turtles, creatures who have outlived the dinosaurs. It is within our power to make changes for the better. Often this takes guts, inconvenience and personal sacrifice. Let’s stop live food markets and the wholesale annihilation of turtles before it is too late.

Susan Tellem/Marshall Thompson

American Tortoise Rescue

December 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Letter to the Editor

SOUP AND SUPERSTITION

"Asian appetite for turtles" is only half the problem. "American greed

for profits" is equally reprehensible ("Asia appetite for turtles seen as

a threat to Florida species," 12/27).

Concerns with the turtle trade are three-fold: environmental, human

health, and staggering animal cruelty. The California markets can legally

sell only two species of live turtles, the spiny softshell and the

red-eared slider. Neither is native to California. When released into

local waters (an illegal but common practice), they displace and prey upon

our native wildlife. Two years ago the California Fish & Game Commission

instructed the Department to ban the importation of these animals. We're

still waiting.

More than 25 recent necropsies have shown the market turtles (and frogs)

to be rife with E. coli, salmonella and pasturella (all of which can kill

you), as well as giardia, blood parasites, even one case of malaria. I'd

sooner eat a dead rat. State law prohibits the sale of such products for

human consumption, yet the practice continues unabated.

Market turtles and frogs are routinely kept without food or water, stacked

five and six deep, and often butchered alive. State Penal Code 597.3

provides for minimal humane treatment but goes unforced, due to public

apathy and the dearth of game wardens.

We need state and federal legislation before we lose an entire family of

animals, one that's been around for 200 million years. And for what?

Soup and superstition.

Sincerely,

Eric Mills, coordinator

ACTION FOR ANIMALS

P.O. Box 20184

Oakland, CA 94620

Los Angeles Times

Letter to the Editor

LET'S LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

     I'm a retired California game warden with over 26 years of service
who worked and later supervised for 20 years the enforcement effort
of the live animal markets in the San Francisco Bay area. Upon my
retirement and turning to consulting I was hired to travel the state
and make a detailed study of the live animal trade. The result was a
lengthy report that covered all aspects of the business: economic
incentives, health issues, cultural bias, politics, rules and
regulations, species selection and environmental impacts. The first
hurdle was to question any agency, dealer or animal activist when
they quoted numbers. I found most agencies claimed they had used
"scientific methods" and strict protocol to arrive at their figures.
What I found was someone on top made a phone call to a subordinate
who repeated the call down the chain to some poor overworked
biologist or clerk.   The request was often accompanied by a demand
for an answer in
a ridiculously short period of time.   The unubstantiated number was then
sent back up the chain of command to be manipulated by the PR person to
fit the political climate at the time. I know I witnessed my department
do this many times.   Statistics from business suffered a similar fate.
The numbers often reflected not fact but were adjusted to meet the needs
of quotas, tax scales or to avoid social conflicts.   Over the years I've
seen many well meaning reporters who were pushed with deadlines go
straight to the top for an answer. In the real world the boss has little
knowledge of many of the particulars in the business. However a number
is given and since it came from the top person the public takes it as
fact.
     Your reporter states that the Asian consumption has all but wiped out
the wild turtle populations in many parts of Asia and now
conservationists in the US fear for the survival of our native
species.   I agree with that statement but I believe our turtle
populations are far lower then what is being reported from the state
conservation agencies.   By the mid 1990's California saw a huge
increase in the number of imported live turtles from other states.
Obviously we were alarmed and by working with other conservation
groups we were able to get harvest statistics from the fish and
wildlife agencies in other states. For example in 1194 Oklahoma
reported a harvest of just over 10,000 market turtles. Just three
years later in 1997 their records show a harvest of 105,000 turtles;
a tenfold increase in just three years.   Every other state that
reported had the same large increases in a very short time. Several
importers in the SF
Bay Area alone went from 500 turtles a week to 4-5,000 a week. It's
worth mentioning at the time none of the states seem concerned and few
had any laws regulating the amount of turtles subject to harvest.   The
increased number of imported animals led to a growing market and
eventually supply fell short of demand.   Wardens then began to see the
gap filled by non permitted and protected turtles as the suppliers
struggled to meet market quotas.   Turtle "wranglers" expanded their
territory and little was done to regulate them.
     Twelve years has passed since the report from Oklahoma and besides
California continuing to receive large shipments, China and other
Asian countries now import from all over the US.
     Considering a turtles survival rate in the wild, the time it takes to
grow to reproductive maturity and the mass destruction of its habitat
common sense would lead one to believe the numbers have to be very
low.   Florida "estimates" they have from 4 to 20 million softshells
left in the state.   If the authorities in Florida have a give or
take range of 16 million turtles it seems to me what they are really
saying is we don't have a clue as to the true numbers.   Florida
isn't any worse then any of the other states, protection of turtles
was never at the top of anyones list.
     The question now is how will everybody deal with it. First they must
decide whether or not they want to utilize the resources needed to
protect whats left of the native populations. If the answer is in
the affirmative then they must accept the realistic viewpoint that
the populations are much lower then then what they report.   Finally
they must spend more time making and enforcing protective
reglulations and less time crying to the press about how bad things
are.   The bottom line is the turtle trade is now big business and
the lure of the almighty dollar, culture clashes and trade policies
may carry more weight then conservation issues.   Hopefully those who
care are also those in a position to act and when they realize the
true numbers of animals taken every year they will move to protect
the species.

Miles Young DFG Pt/Lt (Retired)