I was shopping at a very well known store recently (which will remain nameless) and I was disgusted to find a new "local" line of jewelry for sale and one of the pieces was a dead baby turtle encased in plastic being used as a pendant. They also had baby turtle paperweights (just like the scorpion paperweights they sell everywhere). Is that illegal? I want to confront the store about it, but I'm don't think they'll care. I figure its illegal to sell baby turtles, it must be illegal to sell the bodies, right? Please help, I'd really like to get the store to stop selling them.

It depends. It is illegal to sell live turtles under 4" in the US. But, if you want to mass harvest the poor babies and ship them to China to be eaten, that is legal with a permit. By the same token, it's probably legal to kill them for asinine things like jewelry. That's just horrible. If you want to find out your local law (it does vary some state to state), contact your local Department of Natural Resources. You can ask them about it. I talked to the guys in my state, and they were very nice. They told me I could never legally have a single baby turtle but, if I were a "business," I could trap thousands and send them off to China. They agreed the law was ridiculous but there's nothing they or I can do about it. Any ideas?