Last October I came across a reptile society in my province and found out they had a turtle up for adoption. I started to do my research which included this site as to how to take care of a turtle. Late November I believe it was I finally picked up my adopted turtle Thumper who had been abused by someone (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=28264&p=273470#p273470) . I gave her a nice home in a 50 gallon tank helped get her back to health . Later she was moved to a larger 100 gallon indoor pond which my father and I built for her around a 100 gallon stock tank (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28773) and she moved in mid march and lived happily until last month
I was trying to clean my house up a bit and recoop some costs of the FX5 I just ordered by attempting to sell her old 50 gallon tank / stand / filter so I posted them on Kijiji reason for selling moved turtle to a new tank. I had a couple people want it for next to nothing, one person even asked if I'd be interesting trading it for some body piercings (strangest response I've ever had). Time went on and didn't look like I was going to sell it. Then received a response for something looking for a home painted turtle. We got talking about turtles I provided some links being the turtle lover I am to different websites suggesting they check them out for care etc. We arranged a time for them to come look at the tank. This is great I might actually sell my tank. I'm making dinner I just turned the burner on the stove to make some food. My door bell rings. I'm expecting someone but not yet. I open the door to find 4 armed conservation officers. I'm a little shocked as to what's going on. I am then served with a search warrant for my house for "1-Red Eared Slider Turtle... being kept in captivity without a permit of licence"
Needless to say I'm baffled, confused, frustrated, upset, angry you name it. I quickly put two and two together why they are here or rather how they know I had a turtle thanks to a fantastic waste of government resources time and money trolling on kijiji. All this time I was under the impression that you were not allowed to buy/sell turtles. Sure enough I can find that in the wildlife act unless you are a museum, educational (ie university) or zoo you aren't allowed to sell turtle due to fears of salmonella (that's another rant I could go off on). There is nothing explicitly stating you cannot own a turtle. We have two lists one for permitted and banned list. The permitted list is typical pet store animals iguana's, geckos, snakes, and other mammals. The banned list, constrictor snakes, anything poisonous, venomous, primates, bears, wild boar, crocodilians, endangered etc. Yet no mention of any turtles. This is sadly a grey area in which the powers at be can declare anything that falls outside of these two lists exotic wildlife.
To me declaring a RES as exotic wildlife is absurd. The turtle the most popular in the pet trade being exotic? To me unbelievable. Its certainly not a native species to where I live however it has been in my province due to the pet trade for approximately 50 years as my mother growing up had two. I can even drive a few hours over to the next province and purchase a turtle. Simply retarded.
I then had my turtle seized and removed from my house. I showed the officers to her enclosure "Wow" the lead officer said when he looked at it. Sadly this entire time I've been talking to the conservation officers regarding the reasons etc I knew more about Thumper and turtles in general then they did while they seized her. They then proceeded to educate me hand washing etc regarding salmonella. I did everything I could to bite my tongue. They then took her away.
I provided a statement explaining where I got her from because in my mind I did no wrong. The entire time they were apologetic saying it was their fault for not educating people. A lot of good that is doing.... Finally they left with me not knowing what to do. I told a few friends and it quickly made it back to the reptile society who rescued her in the first place. I got a message from one of my friends telling me to call a number and ask for a specific person. I talked it over with the one of the girls from the reptile society who were livid this happened. They were under the same impression I was regarding turtles. Here's the increible kicker.. They have worked with conservation in the past and conservation knows what they do yet they never mentioned this little unknown fact about laws around turtles. If I knew this fact I never would have adopted a turtle, if they (reptile society) had known this they never would have adopted the turtle out. After I explained everything to them they attempted to use their contacts to try and resolve this issue. Asking that Thumper be returned to me with the proper permits to live out her life with me. We waited and waited and we were never explicitly told "no, and go away" so there was hope. We waited longer I was trying to be positive. I then found out bad news. Didn't look like they were going to comply with our request and they had already shipped Thumper off to a place in Ontario to a zoo.
With that last part pretty much put the final nail in the coffin for my childhood dreams of having a turtle. So doesn't look like I'll ever be able to get a permit and even if I did the chances of me getting Thumper back slightly less then zero.
So that's the story of me and my turtle Thumper. I really hope she is doing already. Poor girl was through a lot. I wish you all well with your turtle adventures and I just hope they turn out better then mine. For the time I had her it was great. I just wish it didn't end the way it did.
