Desert Tortoise faces threat from its own refuge

TaylorJL

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mike taylor said:
How many tortoise loving people are on this site ? Do you think we could help save the tortoise by sending them say five or six bucks a month ? Or maybe send some here to Texas I know I could care for two or three if it means saving them from the gas camber. There is to many options than just kill the animals! I hate this oh we will just have to put them down because we felled to put out more fund raising. Have a damn car wash ,charge people to come and see them .

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I would be in to help save the tortises!
 

Cowboy_Ken

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OK, status as far as I know it previous number, all numbers to Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) has been disconnected. So previous number given out no longer works.
Also only people who live in Nevada can adopt a tortoise
And finally it doesn't seem they are adopting out any tortoises at the moment, though tortoises are being accepted, according to their website at The Animal Foundation (formerly Lied Animal Shelter), 655 N. Mojave Road, Las Vegas, NV 89101, (702) 384-3333. Who seems, according to a recent article posted on DTCC website, to be just turning them over to DTCC.
So if you are in Nevada, call the Foundation if you have a tortoise to give up or just to inquire about adopting one. And meanwhile I got calls into various people to find out what is going on, and will inform you as soon as I can. Then again you may never again hear from me on this if I can't find out anything. Except that I can't find out anything. Sounds like I need help from people invovled in Nevada. (who can inform me of any articles in local papers for example) or local groups getting involved.


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BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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How weird about the petition that was on whitehouse.org now being gone. Don't know who did or undid it.
Have asked some casino people to help. For both information about what is going on out there and for possible benefactors, similar to what Ted Turner did for the Bolson. have also asked Trust for Public Land for guidance, possible land help. We press on ...
 

Zouave

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Posted by ... um ... someone at ... ah .... different forum.

I talked to several people today, the head lady at the "Tortoise Group," some guys with Turtle & Tortoise Preservation Group, and it seems like everyone thinks that the only ones that will be put down are the ones with mycoplasma or are too sick or untreatable to be released in the wild. The ones at the center were pretty much living as wild tortoises already, so they wouldn't be reliant on humans to keep them. I think the initial news stories were being a little over-dramatic. It doesn't really resolve the problem of the pets that get turned in every year, but the 1,400 or whatever they have there will for the most part be returned to the wild (someone said it was 200-300 that may end up being put down). I'm not against those ones being put down if they have the potential of spreading that bug around. There's no cure for it, basically a URI that never goes away. Even in captivity, they often end up spreading it to other tortoises because a lot of people collect DTs in groups in their backyard.
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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Thanks so much for sharing. Interesting.

The mycoplasma agassizii is present, according to many studies, and part of a whole lot of tortoises, wild and unwild. Have read a few studies done on the Sonoran side. One stated that up to 75% of the wild ones had tested seropositive in some populations, and yet no major die offs like we report on the Mojave side. These die offs is what led to the critical status that the desert tortoise got and therefore, the funding. Makes my little pea brain wonder.

This might be some kind of political drama. I still do not agree, and I am sure many believe the same, that tortoises with a possible cold should die. You cannot use tortoises for that amount of funding and then claim that 1,000 to 1,400 tortoises that would find homes easily, are a burden that requires them being whacked. Pressing on for answers ... must press on for answers ....
 

Terry Allan Hall

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Jacqui said:
I just know that there are many folks across the country who would love to give these animals homes. I know I would give my eye teeth (almost) to have a couple, but yep much better to go the easy way out and kill them. :rolleyes: :( Thank goodness they allow the mustangs to be adopted out of their native ranges.

Most mustangs, otoh, become dog food...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr1018

Agree that these "orphan" tortoises should be adopted out, as there are people in nearly every country that would give them homes.
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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Terry, you are so funny "in every country". Were you thinking about the gopherus we have seen from Spain and Germany? But yes, if they cannot go back into the wild and there are people in every state - looking at you Jacqui - who would be happy to be their hosts THE LAWS NEED TO CHANGE for their well being. They can be chipped so that we know who committed to their care and by penalty of law if they are found in the wilds, you have some serious esplaining to do. Education is everything but our dear leaders think the People do not how to do this right. Or they simply do not want to partner with the taxpayers so that they do not have to share these serious a-$$ funding they get from the very people that want to do right by the disposable pet tortoises. Oh man, if I was queen ...
 

Jacqui

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Yes, the laws do need to change. We could cut out the middlemen and folks like me would be happy to adopt those unwanted anmals straight from the folks giving them up. Just move them out of state and away from the wild living natives.
 

james1974

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There's a home out there for each and every one of those tortoises,it would take maybe a week or two to rehome these tortoises.Ill pay the shipping for one oh I live in Illinois so im not allowed to own one but they can execute hundreds maybe a thousand because they can no longer take care of them,wow these animals are losing even when they're being protected by the law,something very wrong about this picture :0(

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BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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Indeed james1974, and may be the TFO community needs to change some laws. We need to knock some sense into these laws and a few or more legislators. You don't protect while you get 159 million funding and then dispose of the pet tortoises when so many Americans would love to adopt one. Chip them, document them, send them to keepers where they cannot "infiltrate" the wild populace. Protection should mean protected! We're doing it, baby!
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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From Hi-Desert (Joshua Tree, California)


Tortoise rescue in Hi-Desert investigates Nevada kill-off

Staff report | Posted: Thursday, August 29, 2013 12:01 pm

MORONGO BASIN — The headline read, “Hundreds of desert tortoises to be euthanized by 2014 at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center just outside Las Vegas.”

“My heart just sank,” Rae Packard, executive director of the Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue, said after hearing the news. Since then, Packard says her rescue line has been ringing non-stop.

“At first, people thought it was us,” Packard said. She has had to explain that the tortoises marked for death are in Nevada.

Not believing the numbers, Packard called the man who was interviewed for the story, Roy Averill-Murray, head of the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.

Averill-Murray told her while the situation is dire, the numbers in the article were exaggerated, and only six tortoises are scheduled to die. Averill-Murray said those tortoises have been diagnosed with upper respiratory disease syndrome and are failing to thrive.

When Packard asked if she could pick up those tortoises and rehabilitate them at her facility, Averill-Murray said both Nevada and California state laws absolutely prohibit the interstate transport of desert tortoises.

“The fear is that if they escape from a rescue facility or adoptive home, the sick tortoises may contaminate healthy ones,” Packard explained.

She heard surreptitious talk of an underground movement to take the tortoises, Packard said by phone Wednesday. However, she cautioned no one should get involved in something like that. Transporting desert tortoises across state lines is a federal offense, and the fines reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“I know that it’s an important law that went into effect to protect what is remaining of an already declining tortoise population,” Packard said, “But I believe an exception should be made in this case, especially if a cure for URDS is possible. That’s why the tortoise adoption programs were invented.”

Packard encourages those who have been moved by this story to reach out to federal legislative officials to urge them to continue funding the conservation center and to state officials to suspend the interstate transport law to stop this life-or-death crisis.

Packard has also started petitions on whitehouse.gov and credo.com.
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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Support Flows in for Sick Desert Tortoises

LAS VEGAS August 30, 2013 (AP)

By HANNAH DREIER

Associated Press

News that hundreds of threatened desert tortoises face euthanasia with the pending closure of a refuge near Las Vegas has generated a storm of reaction that has government officials scrambling to find alternatives and fielding offers from people wishing to adopt the reptiles or make donations.

The Associated Press reported this week that the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, which has sheltered thousands of displaced tortoises for 23 years, is scheduled to close in 2014 as funding runs out.

As the location just south of Las Vegas begins to ramp down, it is euthanizing tortoises deemed too unhealthy to return to the wild. Healthy tortoises won't be killed.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray estimated last week that about 50 percent to 60 percent of the 1,400 tortoises that live at the refuge were sick. Such tortoises cannot be released into the wild because they could infect their healthy wild brethren.

The estimate prompted a public outcry and debate among the various agencies connected to the refuge about the number of at-risk tortoises. It also forced the agency to issue a statement assuring the public that no healthy tortoises will be killed but saying that euthanasia is the only option for many of the animals because they are sick. Fish and Wildlife also assigned four people to field calls and put a message about the situation on its spokeswoman's answering machine.

Deputy Fish and Wildlife Service director Carolyn Wells said Wednesday that the 50 percent estimate of sick tortoises at the facility may be correct, but added that not all of the ailing animals will be killed. Some of them could potentially go to research facilities, she said, though she could not say how many, and she does not yet have commitments from biologists.

Fish and Wildlife operates the center in conjunction with the San Diego Zoo.

Allyson Walsh, associate director for the zoo's Institute for Conservation Research, said just 30 percent of the residents are receiving medical treatment, though some others have been quarantined and need new evaluations.

"The ones that don't get better and that are sick and suffering will probably be euthanized because that's the sensible thing to do," she said.

She disputed the notion that budget cuts are forcing the reptiles to be put down. Although the center has housed sickly tortoises for years, Walsh said they eventually would have been euthanized anyway.

Walsh said sick tortoises cannot be adopted out and she has not been contacted by any researchers interested in taking in the sick animals.

"That's a possibility but we wouldn't transfer an animal to anyone who was doing destructive research," she said.

The right thing to do for a sick animal is euthanize it, she said.

Seth Webster disagrees.

Webster, a 36 year old programmer from New York, created a Change.org petition that together with a similar one on the site has drawn more than 3,000 signatures. He said he is working with a Florida tortoise refuge that recently bought land in Nevada to see if Fish and Wildlife will transfer the tortoises, or at least let an outside evaluator decide which animals are so sick they should be killed.

"Animals have a very strong will to survive," he said. "These tortoises live to 100 years. If we euthanize him, are we robbing him of 30 years? It doesn't seem fair to euthanize them just because the tortoises are sick and someone ran out of money."

Desert tortoises have made their rocky homes in Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada for 200 million years. But the prehistoric animal has some unfortunate evolutionary quirks, including a susceptibility to flu-like respiratory infections and difficulties settling in to new homes. They are also sensitive to change as the tortoises sometimes dehydrate themselves by voiding a year's worth of stored water when handled.

These weaknesses have combined with widespread habitat destruction in the quickly developing Southwest to dramatically reduce the tortoises' numbers.

The Bureau of Land Management has partially funded the conservation center through fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat, but when the housing bubble burst several years ago, that funding dropped far below what was needed to run the center.

"Here's an upside to this. It's gone international," U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jeannie Stafford said. "We have gotten hundreds of people saying they would like to adopt. Thousands of people signing petitions. It's been people wanting to help us with the situation."

But most of the would-be tortoise Good Samaritans cannot actually adopt the animals. Federal laws intended to protect the reptiles ban their transportation across state lines.

People who live in Nevada can adopt the slowpokes through the Desert Tortoise Group. But they should know that owners who kill or release their long-lived pets could face prison time.

The Humane Society of the United States is setting up a fund this week for out-of-staters who want to help but cannot take a tortoise home.

Despite the overwhelming response, the Bureau of Land Management is not reconsidering its plan to pull funding that goes toward the center's $1 million annual budget.

"Although it's wonderful that people want to give money, it won't change the outcome for the Desert Conservation Center," BLM spokeswoman Erica Haspiel-Szlosek said. "There just isn't money to keep it going, nor is it really the best use of conservation funds."

The agency plans to redirect the $810 fee that developers pay for each acre of tortoise habitat they disturb to environmental preservation efforts.

The center has historically taken in about 1,000 tortoises a year, but will stop accepting new residents in coming months.

———

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier
 

ascott

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Despite the overwhelming response, the Bureau of Land Management is not reconsidering its plan to pull funding that goes toward the center's $1 million annual budget.

They are going to redirect it to some other "worthy" cause for the moment I am sure, this is exactly what they do.


"Although it's wonderful that people want to give money, it won't change the outcome for the Desert Conservation Center," BLM spokeswoman Erica Haspiel-Szlosek said. "There just isn't money to keep it going, nor is it really the best use of conservation funds."

In other words they are going to use the land for some other reason, they are done playing with the tortoise
 

Tom

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RE: Does anyone know if this is true?

Yeah it's true. We have a whole thread on it. Despicable.
 

yagyujubei

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RE: Does anyone know if this is true?

But be sure you never remove one from the wild, because it will be more difficult for the BLM to find and kill it later. And don't breed them, because, you know, they say so.
 

Tom

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RE: Does anyone know if this is true?

yagyujubei said:
But be sure you never remove one from the wild, because it will be more difficult for the BLM to find and kill it later. And don't breed them, because, you know, they say so.

Never before have you been SO right on! I find this sort of thing more and more common and more and more infuriating.
 

sueb4653

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RE: Does anyone know if this is true?

why don't they let them be adopted out to responsible owners instead of having a mass slaughter are they that heartless, cruel and stupid...
 

TortyTom

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RE: Does anyone know if this is true?

sueb4653 said:
why don't they let them be adopted out to responsible owners instead of having a mass slaughter are they that heartless, cruel and stupid...

Yeah! I agree they should adopt them out to responsible people. That's far better then killing them.
 
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