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I took Al to the vet this morning (shell rot! and a false alarm.) and while I was talking with the vet, who is a local turtle expert, one of his employees came in to ask questions for someone who had called.

She asked if RESs were normally very active, and he said yes, and she asked if, if one was being very still and not swimming, something was wrong, and he said yes, and she asked if that meant the lady should bring it in. And he sees so many neglected turtles that he said, "She should bring it in to have a look at it, or she can wait a little while and then she can bury it."

He turned to me and said that he did not mean to be crude, but that he was sure I understood that that was the situation And he was right.

Because I'm getting ready to make a pond I joined a few pond forums to ask questions and etc, and some people on those forums think that turtles are just ornaments that you put in the pond- it is very sad! They are all "If I get a turtle, will it need anything special? Will it stay in the pond? I thought they never got out of the water!" etc etc...

WHen I was younger I would have spazzed out and gotten all ranty... now I try to gently educate but it just chills my blood to think of how these poor animals are treated sometimes

There are pond forums out there? Who knew? I wanna see pics when you get it built!

It is sad to say that people really do have no clue. Like anything else, it's a living breathing thing, not an ornament. Geez.

I will definitely post pics! I am pretty excited about Al finally having a pond to swim in.

I hear ya. There is so much mis-information out there regarding turtles and tortoises.

Some friends came over with their little kids (both under the age of 6) and they were all really amazed with my Sheba. The dad mentioned to his son, "maybe we can get a turtle like that, eh?" I promptly stopped him right there and told him that a turtle is NOT an appropriate pet for toddlers due to the salmonella risk (which the dad, of course, did not know about but he was glad I told him!). I spread the word about turtles at every opportunity & let people know that they are pets which require special handling. There is a reason most vets consider them to be "exotic"....

reptilegrrl wrote:Because I'm getting ready to make a pond I joined a few pond forums to ask questions and etc, and some people on those forums think that turtles are just ornaments that you put in the pond- it is very sad! They are all "If I get a turtle, will it need anything special? Will it stay in the pond? I thought they never got out of the water!" etc etc...

It really is sad, sad in the "how can they think that" way. It's not like turtles are ornaments like those ceramic ducks in ponds around some places. It's sad that there is so much tainted information floating around out there. That's where we have to come in and educate one person at a time. All in the name of our shelled friends .