General Care Discussion :: What are your opinions on buying sick turtles?

[BSC]

I see alot of forum posts about people who bought sick turtles from a pet store in an attempt to save them. Especially in the urgent care section.

I'm just wondering what your opinions are on this. I'm not trying to make people who have bought sick turtles feel like they've done something wrong, but I don't really think buying a sick turtle is the right thing to do. These pet shops work on supply and demand, the more people that buy sick turtles, the more turtles they'll get in their shop, and they'll probably end up sick as well.

This may sound cruel to the turtles but I think it's alot better for turtles (as a whole) if people didn't buy the sick turtles they see in stores. If the stores noticed that no one was interested in sick turtles they would stop stocking them and try to sell healthy turtles.

By stocking sick turtles they are targeting the kind loving type of people who struggle to see a sight like a dying turtle, and buy them in an attempt to save them. After all it's much cheaper for the stores to give their turtles poor care instead of good care.

Although I do admire people who are actually able to get the turtles back to full health, I just don't think buying a sick turtle is a good idea.

What are your opinions on this subject?

[mikee]

Buying a sick turtle from a pet shop is not unusual because of thier poor care. Of the many pet shops I have visited do not have a clue about taking care of turtles. If you know it is sick and want to spend your money on vets and care that is left up to you. Just be prepared to have it die on you. I bought four at one time that had poor care knowing that all would not survive. Two died and I still have the other two. One is a yellow belly and the other is a Cumberland.

[Diamondbacks4Life]

My opinion is let them go. I mean good for the people that do it save those turtles but there are alot of ways to look at it.

Turtles usually get sick at the petstore because they dont house them right. So lets say you got 4 sick turtles. Lets say they stay in the petstore for a month then die. Petstore then orders 4 more turtles and then they eventually get sick.

Now lets play out that the good person comes in and buys those first group of sick turtles before they died. He saves them, well the petstore orders more turtles. You just brought in the next group to get sick that much faster. You cant really win.

Whats sad is that story was a real story with me. I got a sick turtle and the petstore ordered 2 more to replace the one i bought. I watched those two turtles come in healthy and then some time passed and I actually came in to find the one dead and the other had really bad RI. I imagine he died, he was gone anyway the next time i went in the petstore.

[rsour24]

the pet store around me takes good care of there turtles, except for one softshell they are selling, it is in bad shape, but my opinion is just like painteds, let it go, you can't win.

[untsmurf]

I agree. You're not saving anyone by buying sick animals, you're just supporting the store (and it's practices) by giving them your money. Instead of "saving" a turtle from the store, you should truly save one by adopting it from a shelter. Then, you're not only giving a turtle-in-need a new home, but you are providing the shelter with the room to save another life.

Same goes for all animals.