People please keep turtles and other animals you find in the wild. If they seem to be in a bad situation just move them to a place where they can live happily.

I've been answering thousands of e-mails about animals, fish, and ponds for 8 years now. There have literally been hundreds of people who have contacted me who took turtles from the wild. It's a serious problem. Sometimes, the turtles were in danger due to habitat destruction, injury, or illness but most times they were just taken. The person sometimes thinks they were doing the right thing or sometimes just WANTS the turtle. It's a crime what native US turtles are going through - habitat destruction, removal from the wild by individuals and the pet trade (resellers), and worst of all those taken en masse for human consumption, mostly (but not all) by Asian countries and peoples. While it's usually illegal for an individual to take turtles, those taken en masse are usually perfectly legal thanks to a screwed up system that puts economics before species survival.

When I get an e-mail about a turtle taken from the wild, I always tell them to return the turtle if it's not hurt, they can return it, the area isn't being bulldozed, it hasn't contacted other turtles, and they haven't had it long. It's not all that simple. There are many variables with which I've become familiar.

I wish I had the room and money so i could just buy all the turtles from pet shops, i once saw a turtle in a local shop that had pieces of its shell missing, like something got ahold of it, i cant prove it, but i'd bet anything these turtles are taken from the wild and put in the store (i've said it alot, i live in southeast texas and red-eared sliders are very common, i caught a HUGE one while fishing once, i tried to get to it to get the hook out, but it was so heavy and strong it broke the line and took off before it could get it... i felt so bad) sorry to get off topic.

I'm sure the first turtle i got was wild caught, but I was young and my parents didnt know any better, heck the 2 turtles i got from this lady were probably wild caught as well, but she didnt want them anymore so i took them in (uh oh, sounds like i started a turtle shelter already :))


Its probably best to leave them alone.

On a side note, a couple friends of mine live on property with a private pond, which technically is the wild, the pond is surrounded by houses, could you theoretically release a turtle there, or would it still be "too wild"?


I think here in Texas you can legally take native turtles with a valid hunting license.

Just for the non-turtle owners that would like to get a turtle for their pond or aquarium, how would you recommend going about getting one, finding a local breeder that has captive bred turtles? i'm sure all this information is on the site though :)

its really annoying with all the threads of people who find turtles and dont know a thing about them.

If the pond is not connected to a natural waterway (stream, pond), it's semi-wild. For a turtle though, all he/she has to do is get up and walk to move to another pond. So, a captive turtle put into a pond should be in a pond that not only doesn't connect to another waterway but also is fenced in.

If someone wants to buy a turtle, I do suggest finding their local turtle club or group and finding a breeder or a turtle up for adoption. Not only does this involve them in the process of picking the species, age, etc. but hopefully the breeder will share their knowledge of the proper care for the turtle in question. There are tons of turtles (some of course were wild caught originally) that need homes. The site turtlehomes.org lists a lot of them. Most are RES's. There are so many of those that need homes that my local turtle club no longer will take them in and find homes for them. The rare turtles normally are adopted right away by turtle club members. If you want a rare turtle, a breeder is probably a better option but for the common species, there are many that need homes.

i totally agree with you Robyn.

people leave the turtles alone! :P .