bscar1019
New Member
I just wanted to share this even though it’s tragic and I guess I feel guilty for not doing more... A friend of mine lives in a suburban area and sent me pics of a tort found in the driveway. I identified it as a box turtle and almost 90% a gulf coast. I told him to maybe find a place to release her in a big park that’s not far from the area because a suburban environment is pretty dangerous. I didn’t want to bring a wild tort to my house/yard for fear of spreading potential disease or parasites. He texted back that his dad told his little brother he could keep it for a while and he was going to build a small enclosure to keep it in. I told him it’s a mostly land species and just fence off an area in the yard and make sure there’s plenty cool shady areas as well as a place to hide out and a sunny basking spot and it should be fine until they can release it. Well his dad goes in the yard and filled a big plastic container with water and dropped her in it and she drowned... I’m so heartbroken and sad and angry and feel responsible for not taking her to release immediately or making a temp place in my yard... I told him exactly what to do and the dad comes in like he knows everything and drops the poor thing in deep water saying turtles need to swim....