Legislation to help pet turtle farms planned - 4 inch law

NEW ORLEANS - Michael Hebert's turtle farm has been hurting since 1975 because of a federal ban against selling them in the United States, but he hopes a congressman will help him and other turtle raisers get back into the domestic market.

Hebert runs Louisiana Cypress Turtle Farm in Pierre Part, which was started by his father in the 1960s. The business raises between 300,000 and 500,000 tiny turtles a year for export to other countries, but is not allowed to sell any of them in the United States.

The government banned the sale of baby turtles in this country in 1975, because they carried salmonella, which causes nausea, fever and cramps.

"We're struggling to make a living and it's totally unfair," Hebert said. "They only banned turtles and any aquatic pet carries salmonella. Iguanas have a much worse problem than turtles."

Hebert now raises hatchlings that he says are over 99 percent salmonella free. They are still banned in this country, but that may change if U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman has his way.

"In the next several weeks, I plan to sponsor legislation that would allow the sale of pet baby turtles that have been proven to be salmonella free as a hatchling," Alexander said in a news release.

Alexander said he would discuss the issue with the other members of the Louisiana congressional delegation.

"We've got to make this issue reach out beyond just the 5th District," Alexander said. "Because this issue affects all turtle farmers statewide."

Since 1986 more than 95 million pet turtles, sanitized in the egg and certified salmonella-free by the Louisiana agriculture department, have been exported for the pet store trade in other countries.

"We built a business in Asia, but the Chinese have learned to raise turtles now, and they don't want to pay for ours," said Walter Davis, who has turtle farms in both Louisiana and Mississippi. "Two years ago they paid $1 to $2 a turtle. Last year they were offering 18 cents."

Most of the nation's turtle farmers are in Louisiana, where the business started during the Great Depression, picking up turtles from the swamps. There are now 56 turtle farms in the state.

The big centers are Pierre Part, which has a population of 3,000 and 13 turtle farms, and Jonesville, where the 2,720 residents include owners of 19 turtle farms.

"We grew up with turtles being hatched under our beds because we were poor," Hebert said. "And none of us ever got sick from salmonella."

There were fewer than five cases of reptile-associated salmonella poisoning per 10 million U.S. residents from 1973 through 1983, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Then the rate started climbing. The 1973 rate was equaled or surpassed every year after 1987. It more than doubled in 1995 and 1996.

During the early 1970s, about 14 percent of salmonella infections came from small pet turtles. In 1999, the CDC estimated that pet reptiles or amphibians were the source of about 93,000 salmonella cases a year - 7 percent of all cases. No more recent estimate was available

"That is an important public health revelation. This is a dangerous, dangerous pet," said Dr. Eugene J. Gangarosa of Emory University in Atlanta, whose research in 1973 prompted the turtle ban.

Ron Siebeling, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University, developed a method of killing salmonella bacteria on and in the egg, said Dr. Maxwell Lea, the state veterinarian.

Louisiana turtle farmers currently are checked to ensure that their turtles are salmonella free, Lea said. But the FDA objected to later versions of Siebeling's process because they used antibiotics and because there was no way to guarantee that turtles would stay salmonella-free.

"That's a big concern to turtle farmers," Lea said. "They have been funding studies looking for alternatives to antibotics."

Link to story

some years ago and nothing came of it ? Maybe same institution or what ever. Which kinda made me believe that maybe it wasn't just the salmonella thing in the first place but the logical idea that baby turtles were of the highly " throw away pet " type. Well. maybe part of the legislation.......

Here's another article on the subject. It tells the same story with a few additions. The main reason I posted this one though was for the quote from the ASPCA, which I put in bold.
Just a reminder that none of these groups, ASPCA, HSUS, Peta, want us to be able to pursue our hobby at all. Please don't support them.

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Breeders: Give kids their turtles

By Ana Radelat
Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Recent generations of American children have been denied, by law, a pleasure their parents once had — owning tiny pet turtles, generally kept in plastic bowls, complete with an island and plastic palm tree.

A ban in the mid-1970s on antibiotics that control salmonella led to a ban on U.S. sales of baby turtles, which are about the size of a quarter when born. Salmonella, which turtles can carry, is a bacterium that can cause several severe intestinal diseases, including typhoid fever.

Barred from selling the creatures in the United States, breeders found a market for the turtles overseas, especially in China.

Owners of turtle farms, which are concentrated in Louisiana and Mississippi, say the United States still has a strong demand for pet turtles, fostered in part from black-market sales on the Internet.

Bolstered by scientific studies, they argue new government-approved antibiotics allow them to breed turtles that are salmonella-free. They've launched a campaign to change the law and restock U.S. pet stores with the little reptiles.

George White has been breeding turtles for 12 years on a farm in Jonesville, La. Female turtles lay their eggs on artificial beaches that ring several ponds. During the spring and summer, White harvests hundreds of thousands of turtle eggs, puts them in metal trays until they hatch and keeps the babies in a 65-degree room so they'll hibernate until they're sold to dealers in Singapore, China, Mexico and other countries.

"It's just like a big chicken hatchery," White said of his operation, which produces about 400,000 pet turtles each year.

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., has responded to the desires of turtle breeders who live in his central Louisiana district — an area with the country's largest concentration of turtle farms. When Congress returns after Labor Day, Alexander hopes to introduce a bill that would allow U.S. sales of turtle hatchlings that are certified salmonella-free.

While turtle breeders are amassing local political support, they may face resistance from the politically powerful American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "We do not endorse having 'exotic' animals as pets," ASPCA spokesman Eric Rayvid said.

Alexander predicted demand for baby turtles in the United States would reach 30 million a year, about double the 15 million bred here for overseas markets. American turtle breeders hope Sen. David Vitter, R-La., introduces a Senate bill similar to Alexander's.

In Mississippi, farmers such as Walter Davis are trying to drum up political support for the cause among members of the Magnolia State's congressional delegation.

Davis, who has a farm in Concordia Parish, La., that produces about 75,000 hatchlings a year, just started a second farm in Mississippi's Adams County.

"Scientifically, we've been able to prove ... that baby turtles can be born salmonella-free," Davis said. He said his biggest overseas buyers in China pay him 18 cents per baby turtle. He contends the value of a turtle would soar to more than $1 if the U.S. market opened up.

Louisiana state Rep. Bryant Hammett Jr. has predicted the legalization of turtle sales would result in a "$50 million infusion into the state's economy."

Im loking to fin exporters alive babies turles for to import to Spain
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