Tortoise lovers: Make SURE you know what you're buying!

Illegally collected critically endangered Madagascar tortoises are being trafficked quite readily through Thailand. Please make sure you purchase your animals from reputable, captive bred sources! The same goes for Indian Star Tortoises!

Below is an excerpt from the article. Go to the following link to read the entire article. http://www.traffic.org/home/2013/3/1...e-tortois.html

Be a responsible reptile keeper and avoid imported endangered species. Do not contribute to the problem or convince legislatures that we truly do fit the stereotypical reptile poacher image!

Bangkok, Thailand, 19 March 2013 – Just a day after the close a global wildlife trade conference here, authorities at Suvarnabhumi International Airport made two big seizures, discovering hundreds of threatened tortoises and apprehending two smugglers. Among the tortoises seized were some of the rarest in the world.

On Friday, authorities arrested a 38-year-old Thai man as he was attempting to collect a bag containing tortoises from Madagascar, from a luggage carousel, at the airport. The bag was registered to a 25-year-old woman who had flown from Madagascar to Bangkok via Nairobi the same day.

Royal Thai Customs officers and their counterparts in the CITES management authority found 54 Ploughshare Tortoises Astrochelys yniphora and 21 Radiated Tortoises Astrochelys radiata, both of which are assessed as being Critically Endangered.

If I cannot legally acquire captive bred members of those species, I don't need them.