red eared sliders

[flyingsqueak]

I work at a Petsmart and a large part of my job is educating people on properly caring for their pets. I've only worked there about two months, but I'm already frustrated with a huge problem. Many many people are buying baby red eared sliders from the China Town in Chicago. These turtles are too young and small to be sold legally, but the real problem is that they are being sold to people with no clue about all of the things these little turtles need to survive.

People who recently purchased these turtles continuously come in to Petsmart thinking that they can keep them in tiny plastic critter carriers (2 gallons!) or sometimes they think a 10 gallon tank is sufficient. They come in and think that they can get everything the turtle needs for under twenty dollars and are really upset when they find out that getting a properly sized tank, the correct lighting, a filter, food, some sort of landing dock, etc will cost upwards of $100. Most of these people have great intentions and really want to properly care for their new pets, but they simply can't afford it. They were severely misled by the people who sold them the turtles and made it seem like an empty room temperature 2 gallon tank and some pellet food is all they need. They are led to believe that the turtles will always be that tiny and are really cheap and easy to care for, but they grow to about a foot and aquatic turtles have really complicated needs!

These people are not entirely without fault since you should never buy a pet on impulse without doing the proper research first, but the sellers' neglect is criminal! Is there anything that can be done to keep this from continuing to happen? I'm tired of hearing about these turtles being horribly neglected through lack of knowledge.

[dr del]

Hi,

Can you report the place selling them?

And you should have seen how many of the poor things died as a result of the mutant ninja turtles craze.


dr del

[Slashmaster]

Have you tried calling Chicago animal control, and informing them where people are getting the restricted animals? Shutting down the source might help alleviate the problem.

[Mohegan]

I'm assuming that you don't know the exact name/location of this seller?

I suggest you call the FDA with what you know -

The FDA asks that anyone who has knowledge of sales or distribution of turtles less than 4 inches in length to report the location and circumstances of the sales directly to the FDA office nearest their residence.

http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/default.htm

Good luck. Poor turtles.

[mainbutter]

The local, state, and federal government knows plenty about how china towns all over the US flaunt and disregard rules and regulations with regard to sales of animals and animal parts.

Sometimes there are busts, but you have to get them all at once, otherwise word of mouth spreads fast and people hide their stock.

[flyingsqueak]

Unfortunately I don't know the exact location or the name of the shops where the turtles are sold. I'm wondering if I could start some sort of educational campaign? You know, make some flyers and pass them out to schools and youth activity centers. I'm also thinking about pretending to be a tourist and going to China Town with a camera and bringing any information I can find to animal control and the FDA.

It's just extremely frustrating. I wish there was something easy I could do that would help. As it is I can only think of time consuming solutions that might not even do any good. I think I'll have to try anyways.

[Jeremy Browning]

I defiantly understand how you feel there i have the same struggle with monitors. I have people email me all the time asking why there savvy or Nile isnt well.... i didnt sell it to them (i dnt sell savs or niles ) but i get recommended locally as a monitor expert. Then i end up buying it from the person spending 100's on it and eventually giving it a home where i know it will be properly taken care of.