Turtlesale.com

The above website/dealer is using images obtained from other websites, including one of mine as an illustration of ornate box turtles currently being sold through the turtlesale.com website. I have personally written him several times requesting my image be removed and the only initial response I received was to guide me into a purchase of box turtles. I have since written his domain server as well as his website host, with last correspondence made early last week, to no avail. The picture still remains on this website several weeks later. Initially, I found this image that holds my organizations copyright on the website it was swiped from on kingsnake.com holding the turtlesale.com copyright. Subsequently, after my contact with kingsnake, the image was removed and has not appeared again to my knowledge in the classifed turtle section. Since I have gotten no where in resolving the issue of my image and others appearing on this website my last memo to the owner of the site gave him 24 hrs to remove the image in question or I would take it public. Hence, my posting here today. I question if one does not have their own images of animals there supposedly hold for sale, is whether or not these animals are in existance and if they are, what sort of condition are they in that the need arises to use images of others without copyright intact or permission from the owner of said picture. I find it rather disturbing that this blatant, unprofessionalism, is allowed to stand without any other recourse, but to bring it to the attention of the public.

My picture can be seen at:
http://turtlesale.com/box-turtles1.html
and http://turtlesale.com/images/ornatebox2.jpg
The picture is more
than two years old and originally appeared on Joe's Heinen's
box turtle site in which I Co-author,
located at: http://aboxturtle.com/ornate.htm

Thank you very much for reading this.


--
Debbie

Director, Massachusetts Turtle Rescue, Inc.
http://www.maturtlerescue.org
Moderator for Massachusetts Turtle Rescue's Online Community
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Maturtlerescue/join
Co-Owner of the North American Box Turtle Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthA...Boxturtle/join

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You have to wonder about a guy that is selectively breeding turtles for a genetic defect and then selling them for an inflated price.
He seems very proud of himself for producing red eared sliders with no eyes.

You can get a healthy normal red eared slider from him for $24.95 but a "eyeless" hatchling will run you $89.95.

...what a deal!

I couldn't believe my....well....eyes. To give a home to a handicapped turt is one thing. To breed and sell more who are eyeless is inexcusable. But, if he is stealing pics as well, what can one expect?

Lucille Hollander

on breeding the genetic defect and stealing pictures to advance the sellers business, run them out of town ! Besides, i found almost all of thier prices to be expensive for what they were selling but noticed that the RES and sort included shipping and if that is true, not bad price, I did think the sulcattas juvies and some other torts were on the expensive side though. Does anyone actually know anyone that has bought from them ? They really kinda fancy up the discription on the turts to a " make your day ! " or " you gotta have one or more of these ! " type of deal. I would be leary unless they would be willing to give some testiments and or real customers as to being " happy campers " with the purchase from this seller/s. My opinion and .02 cents worth.

i also have seen this website, and i think that this fella must be using compromising husbandry practices to produce this defect time and again.
this concerns me...isnt that at least neglect?

Yes seems strange how one can sell eyeless turtles. Dont try emailing him its a waste of time. Ive emailed him plenty of times inquiring on prices. See I wanted two species of turtles but both prices included shipping. I would think that combining would save shipping. Well I emailed him to see and all he does is gives you a link to his site, doesnt answer any questions. Ive called the phone number he provides numerous times and still havent recieved an answer. And since you cant leave a message and he doesnt answer your questions on emails I really would stay away from him. I have ordered supplies from him off ebay about a year ago. He sent me the wrong basking platform, but at least I got one i guess.

Theres a guy who works for this company who sells turtles out of a truck on the side of the road in Orlando, Fl. He actually sells a lot of turtles, but his prices are totally outrageous, and he gives people horrible advice. I work at a pet store and numerous people have told me that the guy stated "the turtles grow only as big as the container you have them in" He sells those terrible"turtle lagoons" and other small plastic environments that are almost guaranteeing a slow miserable death to the hatchling turtles that he sells. It is apparant by looking at their advertising that they just want to sell as many turtles as possible to as many ignorant people as possible. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I have dealt with norm on a few occasions, all at the wholesale, or dealer level. I received healthy animals and everything went smoothly with him.
I agree that his retail prices are a bit high, but....this is just free enterprise.
If they think they can sell red ear sliders for that price, and they do and their customers are happy. Then hey, so be it.
As for the eyeless animals, I dont agree with that either.
I see thousands of turtles a year, and it does happen. I know I dont charge an arm and a leg for them. of course if I did that, then you would be buying a two legged eyeless turtle....
HMMMM
TOM

I realize this topic started out concerning image fruad but I also have had a bad experience recently with this company.

I recieved a very unhealthy Ornate Box Turtle on 12/22/2004

Vet bills have gone over 165$ allready at this point for treatment and could have been much higher if I was not willing to administer follow up injections and treatment at home on my own.

The turtle arrived with an ear abcess in the right ear,
generally lethargic,
inflamed eyes glued shut by dried mucus,
a damaged nose (one nostril is abcessed, blocked with puss, and scabbed over),
he shows no interest in food,
has a respiratory infection,
has diarrhea,
and is extremely malnourished and emaciated weighing in at 274grams (my other male with a carapace roughly 1/4 inch smaller weighs 378grams.)

treatment so far has been the ear abcess getting lanced and cleaned out,
vitamin injections, antibiotic injections every 3 days (amikacin), force feeding through a feeding tube, and if his nose doesn't clear up soon with topical antibiotic treatments he'll get another trip to the vet for minor surgery to clean that out too.

to ice the cake I was also sent a quarter sized aquatic turtle as a free bonus which I did not ask for and had no habitat or means to care for.

After 2 weeks of antibiotics the turtle is showing some signs of recovery but if successfully healed will still take months to fully recover from the lack of muscle mass and weight.

all correspondence has led to nothing. I was finally able to reach Lance @ turtlesale.com by phone. He talked to me regarding a gender confusion issue (the box was labled female but this is clearly a male) but he would say nothing in response to my claims or concerns regarding the animals ill health.

My recommendation is to not do any business with TurtleSale.com
thanks,
Daniel Tabaka

photo showing him getting a drink after 2 weeks intense therapy.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d=1#post503816