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Seamus, for your information, the law was enacted back then because turtles were commonly fed raw chicken and meat. That was the major source of the bacteria. The FDA stated this as cause when they enacted this law. Today, people feed baby turtles pellet food which is mostly plant matter with some fish by product. I typically float large outer leaves of romaine lettuce in tanks for them to eat. If water is filtered, as it always should be, you will not have a significant enough bacteria load to cause any illness. It is only in stagnant water that the load would be considerable enough to cause harm and anyone who keeps turtles in filthy water is then at fault. As for your siphoning comment, that is true of large turtles, fish tanks and anything else! What does that have to do with turtles under 4"? Again, you are putting things in a context that does not apply. Method does not matter here. By the law it is the size of the carapace length, nothing else, so that you can't put the turtle in your mouth. As far as I am concerned, if you are dumb enough to put a turtle in your mouth or if you are a bad enough parent that you can't keep a turtle out of your childs mouth then you deserve whatever you get. Just as I feel all paternalistic laws are wrong. Suicide should not be illegal. We should not be mandated by law to wear motorcycle helmets or seat belts. Please don't go off on this as a tangent, these were just examples. Evan Stahl
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