While I do feel very bad those poor girls had to get off the plane and "get rid of" their turtle, I do think it is common sense that they or their parents should have known you can't bring animals on the plane without special arrangements. They could have easily shipped it home. Plus, it seems that the airline did ship it back to them after they located it.

I saw the mom wrote PETA...GREAT!! *sarcasm* Now they will lobby that air travel is horrible for ALL animals and try to ban that too.