The Baby Turtle Law

Originally Posted by neilg

on the other hand, variety stores, and street vendors in front of them on main st new york's chinatown, and los angeles chinatown often peddle lotsa hatchling res for $5/each

pet shops selling baby turtles/torts? have yet to ever seen every one and would be surprised since its one of the top violations plain clothes inspectors scour the cities' pet shops for.

Like Dennis, I've seen it at stores here in CA, usually at fish/bird/reptile mix stores. They would usually have a sign that said 'for educational use' in small print under the price. I don't frequent pet stores any longer so I can't say how it is now but 10 years ago...

Originally Posted by hissnthatexotics

I'm a little confuse... I've always thought you are not Allowed to sell any turtles under 4" .... but why does every single pet store I know sell them, I've even bought them, never signed a form or anything. Should I even acknowledge this law? I've always tried to avoid getting baby turtles at my shop....which leaves me VERY limited to what I can get. Opinions? Clarifications?

You've gotten a lot of good responses but I will just add that I recommend you stick with your policy and not sell them. Sounds like that is what you have decided and I say good for you. Don't cave for the extra dollars. When I had my shop I was asked all the time if I could get baby turtles and when I said it was against the law to sell them I often got "so and so sells them" and my response was always "well so and so is breaking the law" You might get away with it for a while but if you do get caught it wouldn't make all the sales worth it.

A lot of times you will see stores that are not traditional pet stores selling them like souvenir shops in tourist towns (like the Wisconsin Dells) Stores would break them out on Friday evening, sell them through the weekend and hide them away on Monday again. I guess their thought was the DNR wouldn't be checking t shirt shops, especially on the weekends and if someone called to complain by the time they got around to sending someone out they would be safely hidden away again.

As a shop owner I always felt I had to do what I felt was right and that meant not selling animals that were illegal first of all and second not selling animals, though legal, I felt the majority of people do not have the capability of taking proper care of. Of course this is a totally different subject but no Burms or Retics or gators in my shop. No Green Iguanas, Nile monitors or sulcata tortoises even if they were 4" even though all would have been legal for me to sell. You wouldn't find Bala sharks, iridescent sharks, Pacus, Oscars or common plecos or a number of other fish in my fish section either. I'm not saying this makes me any better than the next guy who does sell these items, as long as they are legal, but its the way I wanted to do business.

for all the local pet stores allegedly taking the 'chance' selling baby RES to walk-in customers: seriously?

teenage mutant ninja turtles have become rather played out even with the recent movie revamp and all. i dont see people buying from the street vendors or variety stores that peddle them, even for $5 with the free mini habitat with coconut tree and built-in plastic island, even! =D

so it bewilders me any pet shop owner in their right mind - in today's police state, city, county etc - would risk hundreds to thousands of dollars in fines per violation just for making a quick $5 here and there; if even that, considering the wholesale price for non-smuggled baby RES is already $5 plus add to that shipping.. how much can pet shop owners mark that $5+ spent per baby to make it worth taking the chance of today's hefty health violations fines or even the risk of being shut down?

sure, they can use the cheap/free cute baby turtle/tortoise to upsell a habitat, but even if it's free with a package purchase, they're already out $5+ per baby RES unless they're buying smuggled baby RES (or backyard/mill farmed) which still cost at least a couple $ each.

so you are saying that you are like the Indian guy from "Joe Dirt" that owns a fireworks stand but only sells snakes and sparklers? lol

and all the pet shops in columbus, except one, that sells babies has a sign that they are for educational or research purposes only. And I bought my Sulcata online for educational purposes. My 6yr old girl is better with reptiles than most people i know. she just got her first snake yesterday to add to her collection of friends. she sits with her lizards and talks to them and reads to them. im sure the snake is getting to watch tv with her right now

No one enforces the law here in PA. I called the Boat Commission (they handle reptile laws) about the baby RES being sold, they said it's a Federal law and they won't/can't enforce. They only pursue cases involving native PA species.

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