A couple weeks ago someone asked a question about tethering a tortoise. I tried to find that thread so I could post my pictures there, but couldn't.
A lady that has adopted tortoises from me in the past called to see if she could bring me a turtle. She found the turtle in her swimming pool. When she brought me the turtle this is what I saw:
This is a Pacific Coast Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata). It is the only native-to-California water turtle, and is protected. The laws governing this turtle are covered in the limit section of the DFG handbook...that is, like the limit for catching a striped bass is 3, or the limit for trout is 10. Well, the limit for pond turtles is 0. That means no one can have a pond turtle.
This poor turtle had a hole drilled in his shell and a plastic tie attached to it. Who knows what the plastic tie was attached to, but I'm sure glad the turtle was able to escape! Can you imagine someone tethering a water turtle? What would keep the poor turtle from drowning if his tether got caught up on something? The Pacific pond turtle is just the sweetest, nicest turtle. You can pick up a wild turtle that has never seen a human before in its life, and right away it is sweet, calm and seemingly tame. It just blows me away that someone would do this to a pond turtle.
Yvonne
A lady that has adopted tortoises from me in the past called to see if she could bring me a turtle. She found the turtle in her swimming pool. When she brought me the turtle this is what I saw:
This is a Pacific Coast Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata). It is the only native-to-California water turtle, and is protected. The laws governing this turtle are covered in the limit section of the DFG handbook...that is, like the limit for catching a striped bass is 3, or the limit for trout is 10. Well, the limit for pond turtles is 0. That means no one can have a pond turtle.
This poor turtle had a hole drilled in his shell and a plastic tie attached to it. Who knows what the plastic tie was attached to, but I'm sure glad the turtle was able to escape! Can you imagine someone tethering a water turtle? What would keep the poor turtle from drowning if his tether got caught up on something? The Pacific pond turtle is just the sweetest, nicest turtle. You can pick up a wild turtle that has never seen a human before in its life, and right away it is sweet, calm and seemingly tame. It just blows me away that someone would do this to a pond turtle.
Yvonne
