A Petition to stop selling wild caught Russians !!! PLEASE SIGN

[pryncesssc]

A friend of mine started this petition to get Petco and Petsmart to STOP selling wild caught Russian Torts. Please help the cause by signing this petition !!

Thanks in advance

http://www.change.org/petitions/pet...ught-russian-tortoises-agrionemys-horsfieldii

 

[lynnedit]

I'm in.

 

[shellysmom]

Awesome.

 

[kanalomele]

I already signed!

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

I'll sign it!

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

The problem is that Petco and Petsmart aren't the ones that go out and catch them. And they also don't have any official "knowledge" of whether or not the tortoises are wildcaught. They get the tortoises from a company that just sends them. They don't tell them whether or not they were wildcaught, etc. So in short, going after the stores isn't going to work, you need to go after the distributor.

 

[wellington]

Signed

 

[cemmons12]

Im in also!

 

[dmmj]

I have a petition signed by anonymous people on the internet, I am sure petcio will get right on that.

 

[Len B]

I would rather have them come here to be sold as pets, than being sent to China to be sold as food. Until the collection and export is stopped there is no good solution.

 

[mctlong]

I have a petition signed by anonymous people on the internet, I am sure petcio will get right on that.

Despite your cynicism (or maybe because it), I'm in.

---

I would rather have them come here to be sold as pets, than being sent to China to be sold as food. Until the collection and export is stopped there is no good solution.

Yes, being sent to China is horrible fate.

It would also be nice to see some tougher regulations on shipping conditions to the US.

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

The problem is that Petco and Petsmart aren't the ones that go out and catch them. And they also don't have any official "knowledge" of whether or not the tortoises are wildcaught. They get the tortoises from a company that just sends them. They don't tell them whether or not they were wildcaught, etc. So in short, going after the stores isn't going to work, you need to go after the distributor.

I have a petition signed by anonymous people on the internet, I am sure petcio will get right on that.

This is precisely why I chose not to sign it. Petitions rarely accomplish anything, especially in matters like this.

Don't get me wrong, I feel for the tortoises, and yes, CB is better. But these companies do not see long term. They don't care about preserving wild populations of RTs in Europe (they certainly don't care about preserving wild populations of green anoles here in the U.S.!). All they care about it money, plain and simple.

The stores themselves have very little control on where and who they order from. They order animals from vendors & dealers approved by their company. And right now, both companies are perfectly fine with sub-par animals.

---

No offense to the OP's friend, but here's several reasons why this petition is futile.

First of all, he addressed to both companies. How does he plan to present this petition to them. He should have created a separate petition for each company.

Petsmart & PetCo have been selling wild caught Russian tortoises for years now. It's not sustainable and they are not "farmed" as they are often advertised. Wild caught tortoises have different growth on their carapace when compared to captive raised animals. It's easy for people familiar with raising tortoises to identify wild caught tortoises. These animals are taken from the wild overseas and often are sick and harboring parasites. I have witnessed the warehouses these animals are held in prior to export to the USA and it is deploreable! The tortoises are held in warehouses in crates all piled on top of each other prior to export and if one tortoise is sick they often all become sick. Just imagine hundreds of thousands of tortoises piled on top of each other and upside down without being able to flip over. I visit both petstores (PetSmart and PetCo) in my city and other cities frequently and

Secondly, sure most of us diehard tortoise hobbyists know, but is any of this provable in a court of law? We need evidence: paperwork, photos of the conditions. I also would leave out editorials like "it is deploreable!" or "just imagine this or that" (not to mention use a spell check).

often see them with RNS (runny nose syndrome),

"Runny nose syndrome?" Is that a common term in the tortoise community? I have yet to hear it. Perhaps he should have stuck to more accurate medical terms like respiratory illnesses.

Employees have told me many times that the animals are not eating.

Again, evidence is needed...maybe not now, but later.

I realize the profit on captive animals that are raised up to 4" shell length (the legal size) do not offer the same profit potential as cheap wild caught animals but I believe customers would pay more for healthy animals that do not require a trip to the vet immediately after purchase!

If that were the case, then there would be no need for this petition. On the contrary, most customers opt for the cheapest route. The "quality over quantity" crowd is in the minority.

They, together, are wiping out an entire species from the wild.

Once more, evidence?

 

[Jacqui]

I would rather have them come here to be sold as pets, than being sent to China to be sold as food.

Ditto, but being used any where as food not going to single out just China. At least this way they have a chance to live and to pass on their genes.

 

[Kerryann]

I would rather have them come here to be sold as pets, than being sent to China to be sold as food.

Ditto, but being used any where as food not going to single out just China. At least this way they have a chance to live and to pass on their genes.

Also agreed, but I do know that some suffer as pets too In this day and age how can people not google some stuff and care for their animals??? Before we rescued betty I had combed this site and had her food and cage requirements and the very basics down. Her previous owner had her for four years and never did that much.

 

[Jacqui]

Also agreed, but I do know that some suffer as pets too In this day and age how can people not google some stuff and care for their animals??? Before we rescued betty I had combed this site and had her food and cage requirements and the very basics down. Her previous owner had her for four years and never did that much.

Because of several reasons, such as most folks trust what they are told or see at Pet stores, by breeders, at expos, at Zoos, by Vets, ect.., To get the real answers you need to read thoughts from several people/sites and then work it to fit you, not just follow blindly. Most folks fail to do a more complete research. Books are often old and out of date. We humans are out of date too, for many of us we may not have a computer, use a computer, or even think to look on line for stuff.

 

[LuckysGirl007]

I just signed! They need 59 more!

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Also agreed, but I do know that some suffer as pets too In this day and age how can people not google some stuff and care for their animals??? Before we rescued betty I had combed this site and had her food and cage requirements and the very basics down. Her previous owner had her for four years and never did that much.

Because of several reasons, such as most folks trust what they are told or see at Pet stores, by breeders, at expos, at Zoos, by Vets, ect.., To get the real answers you need to read thoughts from several people/sites and then work it to fit you, not just follow blindly. Most folks fail to do a more complete research. Books are often old and out of date. We humans are out of date too, for many of us we may not have a computer, use a computer, or even think to look on line for stuff.

I would have to agree... I am one of the few people that works in the petstore that I do that is completely okay with telling someone "I have no idea". Most of us either fall back on the minimal "training" we got on a computer that gave all kinds of outdated or just plain wrong info, and some people just make stuff up. I was quite surprised and honestly, pretty flattered the other day when I told someone that asked me something about cat food "To be honest I have no clue" and she responded with "you have no idea how much I appreciate your honesty". Just reminds me that so many people take everything we petstore employees say to heart and that most of us really have very minimal knowledge on a lot of subjects.

 

[Tom]

Have you all gone mad? Isn't it enought that the government wants to ban everything and take our pets away and now you want to HELP them do it???

By all means take steps to ensure that all imported and captive bred animals are well cared for and housed properly, but this is a lot of misguided emotion, albeit with good intentions.

There is nothing wrong with importing farmed or wild caught tortoises. NONE of us would have ANY tortoises if wild caughts were not allowed. We can all agree that they should be collected and shipped better. We can all agree that there should be a limit on how many can be taken from the wild annually, but good lord, trying to make people NOT be able to sell them anymore? How many fewer people would be in to tortoises if you couldn't go buy one from a pet store. Thats where I got my first turtle. It was a western box turtle way back in 1979 and I'm pretty sure it was wild caught. How different would the tortoise world be if me, and thousands of others like me, had never gotten in to tortoises because they weren't readily available.

As Mike pointed out, that petition is full of all sorts of speculation and misinformation. If someone wants to start a petition asking the chain pet stores to house, feed and care for their tortoises better, I will gladly sign up and even help out. This petition on the other hand goes way too far. Pryncesssc, does your friend have a large colony of captive bred Russians the are producing lots of babies to help fill the void of the ones that he/she proposes not be imported or sold?

 

[ra94131]

Have you all gone mad? Isn't it enought that the government wants to ban everything and take our pets away and now you want to HELP them do it???

By all means take steps to ensure that all imported and captive bred animals are well cared for and housed properly, but this is a lot of misguided emotion, albeit with good intentions.

There is nothing wrong with importing farmed or wild caught tortoises. NONE of us would have ANY tortoises if wild caughts were not allowed. We can all agree that they should be collected and shipped better. We can all agree that there should be a limit on how many can be taken from the wild annually, but good lord, trying to make people NOT be able to sell them anymore? How many fewer people would be in to tortoises if you couldn't go buy one from a pet store. Thats where I got my first turtle. It was a western box turtle way back in 1979 and I'm pretty sure it was wild caught. How different would the tortoise world be if me, and thousands of others like me, had never gotten in to tortoises because they weren't readily available.

As Mike pointed out, that petition is full of all sorts of speculation and misinformation. If someone wants to start a petition asking the chain pet stores to house, feed and care for their tortoises better, I will gladly sign up and even help out. This petition on the other hand goes way too far. Pryncesssc, does your friend have a large colony of captive bred Russians the are producing lots of babies to help fill the void of the ones that he/she proposes not be imported or sold?

I could not agree with this post more.

 

[dmmj]

So this petition person is gonna submit an online petition with only 200 people? I was expecting at least 100,00 people pet co and pet smart won't take anything seriously with only 200 people.