Illegal Turtles

[surena]

You can take "some" turtles in Tennessee, but you can't buy or sell them though. Check this link. http://tennessee.gov/twra/fish/nongamefishing.html#turt
I'm not sure if you can keep them as pets. If I was you, I would call around and see what the law is on that. If you don't want to buy them online, the closest place would be Alabama, where I have seen many red-ear sliders and other turtles sold at pet stores. This law is not stupid, there is a reason for it. Many of these species are endangered.

 

[Onagro]

It's not that the law is stupid, it's that the punishment is. If you are fined, someday you will get your money back but the turtle is either destroyed or taken by some state offical who may not understand what they are doing. However, they don't always confiscate your turtle; they may just fine you per turtle and leave you be.

I'm pretty familiar with the snapper law here, considering my grandparents are ravenous turtle-eaters. They only will eat snappers here, but occassionally go out of state and get other species. I'm pretty sure if you raise your turtle well and don't charge out into the streets declaring your turtle keeping you should be safe from the fine.

 

[green_bottle_04]

B<edit>. People should have to catch their own turtles. That way they will have some idea of what needs a turtle has. Instead of posting on a forum- I bought a turtle what do I feed it and what do I put it in.

Also, turtles arent endangerd by people catching their own, they are endangered by a few people catching them to sell to other people.

as far as i can tell...NOBODY posted anything on this thread saying " i bought a turtle. what do i feed it and what do i put it in." maybe im wrong though...

 

[Wade]

A few points:

The 4" law is at the FEDERAL level. It covers the whole US, not just some states. It was, indeed, enacated for fear of samonella. The goal was to shut down the practice of selling baby turles at the dime store as novelty pets. For the record, most of these were produced on turtle farms and not wild collected. This is why they always had baby turtles available. The industry centered on two species, mainly the red eared slider and to a lesser extent the yellowbelly slider.

While the mass selling of baby turtles (I remeber going to the pet store as a kid and seeing litterally hundreds of them in a tank) did indeed end, the law has several loopholes you could drive a truck through. The one usually used is the "turtles under 4" are sold for educational purposes only" . One would assumes that you need to be a teacher or something, but there is never any proof asked. The other is that the law bans the SELLING of the turtles only, not giving them away. Many petstores don't actually sell you the turtle, they sell you the tank, light etc (the supplies is where the real money is) and give you the turtle (which only cost the store a couple of bucks) free.

This law accomplished some good things, it did cut down on turtles being treated as disposable novelty pets, and therefore also cut down the cases of turtle-related samonella.

However, it also has some bad side effects. Before the ban, the turtles were produced on turtle farms and cultured, not wild collected. The ban destroyed the market for captive bred turtles, and created a bigger market for wild collected turtles (which were alredy big enough to be sold). It also removes any finacial motivation for turtle keepers to breed their animals, as maintaining the turtles long enough for them to be 4" long may take years and is very costly.

On captive bred vs. wild caught: Although generally captive bred animals make the best pets, the issue isn't so clear cut as to which way is more ethical. For example, the red ear slider has been introduced all over the US, way outside it's natural range. They're mainly a midwestern species, so if you live elsewhere, I say collect them in good conscience, they don't belong there anyway and likely are out-competeing native species and otherwise causing problems for the ecosystem.

Also, if you're interested in keeping a pet turtle and you see WC Asian species offered for sale, buy all means buy them (assuming they appear healthy etc). Asian turtles are being eaten to extinction, and the problem has expanded to the US as Asian turtle populations dwindle. The Asian species you see in pet stores are not collected from the wild for the pet trade, they are collected for the food markets. Animal exporters buy turtles from the markets (so they're already doomed) for export. Captivity is probably the only hope for survival for many Asian species.

Until recently, in North Carolina you could buy a turtle trapping permit and collect all you wanted (for food) for 1 year for $5. This ended abruptly when it was discoverd that some permit holders were commercial interests that were selling thousands of turtles to China! Fortunately, the NC state legislature acted quicky to stop the practice.

Wade

 

[dangerprone69]

REALLY?! WOW! i guess i dont have it too bad in TN then...crocodilians, anacondas, venomous snakes (with permit), and all corn snakes are all legal here. why are corn snake morphs illegal?

Well I've never gotten a straight answer from Fish & Wildlife since the person who handles exotics for the department never answers her phone and her inbox is full, so I can't leave a message. Corn Snakes are native to New Jersey, but highly threatened due to habitat destruction. I've been told that the reason they're so strict on Corns here is that the state is trying to preserve our bloodlines and doesn't want any interbreeding and hybridization with other localities.