Interesting CL post on the sale of small turtles

[Beardedragon]

I thought I had read somewhere a year or 2 ago that the law about turtles under 4 inches had been lifted.

Not in GA at least. They might have been trying to lift it? The whole ban is dumb IMO, a child died from putting one in his mouth and died from salmonella and the parents made the ban happen( sorta like " McDonalds Coffee burnt me!")

If you want a small turtle there are many ways you can get them, which I think the ban should stop. Turtles are not easy in the least bit to take care of and many people put them in a small tank with no lights thinking their cute little turtle will be fine. If they do somehow keep it alive alot of owners release them because of how big some get

[Mike Schultz]

Not in GA at least. They might have been trying to lift it? The whole ban is dumb IMO, a child died from putting one in his mouth and died from salmonella and the parents made the ban happen( sorta like " McDonalds Coffee burnt me!")

If you want a small turtle there are many ways you can get them, which I think the ban should stop. Turtles are not easy in the least bit to take care of and many people put them in a small tank with no lights thinking their cute little turtle will be fine. If they do somehow keep it alive alot of owners release them because of how big some get

I think the ban is good in a certain sense. I work in a pet store, and you would not believe the amount of people coming in with ZERO experience, and asking for baby turtles "for their kids to raise."

Sucks that because of uneducated people, everybody suffers the consequences...

[blackcrystal22]

I think the ban is good in a certain sense. I work in a pet store, and you would not believe the amount of people coming in with ZERO experience, and asking for baby turtles "for their kids to raise."

Sucks that because of uneducated people, everybody suffers the consequences...

I agree completely. However, its wrong that experienced people are not given a chance to own one.
Something about this kind of thing, my breeder that I received my corn snake from talked to me a lot about experience. He later told me that if he felt there wasn't enough experience for certain owners (he had a lot of turtles and larger snakes) that he would refuse a sale. He said he had occasionally stomping angry parents come in complaining that he wouldn't sell a blood python to their 12 year old child.

So yeah. I hate stupid parentals like that.

[kjhowland]

Interesting part about the ban is that it only prevents the sale of a turtle under 4 inches, but not the possession of such. In my state, its also illegal for a vendor to sell a native species. So basically I can own any size or species of turtle providing its not on the restricted list (not many turtles there), but a vendor is not allowed to sell me one is its under 4 inches or of a species native to me. I was looking at a stinkpot because it remains fairly small, but the local DNR told me it was considered a native species.