Turtle rescue 911....

[suziquzie]

We already let it go right away on Saturday.... it wanted to go away and it wasn't fair to it to keep it.
I didn't think it was right to suddenly decide for the poor thing it was no longer allowed to be a wild animal and now be my pet.
I believe you have to allow nature to be nature.

[quicksilver]

Poor baby.

[kitchenelf]

suzi - the only thing I would do is call a vet to see if what you did was the right thing for future reference. I certainly don't know a thing about turtles. You did what you could and at least it didn't bake on the side of the road.

The pick-a-nic table is beautimous Don't you dare try to wash off their artwork!!!!

[middie]

Suzi my dad did stuff like that all the time with turtles. They were everywhere by his house. He'd always save them from the side of the road and set them free in the pond. Of coourse I think you did the right thing.

[jennyema]

I used to catch turtles just like this one in Minnehaha creek all the time when I was a kid. I pretty much always had pet snakes and turtles I caught until high school. What a geek!

Anyway, IMO, you did exactly the right thing. I hope the little guy is ok, but you never know. You did give him a fighting chance though.

A few summers ago I saw a huge snapping turtle in the middle of a busy road. I was the only one that stopped. It was really huge and I was pretty nervous since they can sever fingers but I did pick it up by the tail and get it off the road and into a pond. I would never leave an animal of any sort in the road.

[sattie]

Originally Posted by jennyema

I used to catch turtles just like this one in Minnehaha creek all the time when I was a kid. I pretty much always had pet snakes and turtles I caught until high school. What a geek!

Anyway, IMO, you did exactly the right thing. I hope the little guy is ok, but you never know. You did give him a fighting chance though.

A few summers ago I saw a huge snapping turtle in the middle of a busy road. I was the only one that stopped. It was really huge and I was pretty nervous since they can sever fingers but I did pick it up by the tail and get it off the road and into a pond. I would never leave an animal of any sort in the road.

Hey Jennyema... a little trick I learned about capturing snapping turtles is to throw a towel or shirt over their head before picking them up. That will calm them a bit and they will stop snapping so much.

[pot clanger]

I agree with LadyCook: contact a wildlife rehabilitation source, possibly through your vet if you find any "wild" creature in need of assistance.

And Quicksilver is correct about the turtles carrying many types of bacteria... the hand washing is a good thing.

A Rant, and not meant to be taken personally....

The turtle was a Red Eared Slider... I had one for eleven years. They live around water, and sadly, are commonly sold in Asian and Hispanic markets out here in Cali. They are the size of a silver dollar when they're sold, so they look "cute" and are frequently sold as pets.

Then they out grow their tiny bowls and no one wants them anymore or it's too expensive to buy an aquarium and a basking light and rock and water filter and meds for shell problems and all the other "acoutrements" that are needed for a happy & healthy turtle (similar to the Easter bunny syndrome) so they are set free somewhere. (I found three bunnies in my old neighborhood, a few months after Easter, when they outgrew their cages and the interest of the owners...) There is a "turtle Lady" out here who has converted her yard to house these turtles - she has sooo many - people drop them off at her place all the time. I give her $$ - there's no way I could house all the "strays" I find...

[CharlieD]

You did it all wrong. Half of the job was already done for you, all you had to do was finish it. Soup, that was the right solution.

[buckytom]

pot clanger, there are some really fierce and interesting debates on the internet about the sale of sliders in asian communities in the u.s.. the law is gotten around by selling them for food, but they're really sold for pets. who could make a meal out of a single, coin-sized turtle?

i found out about it when our neighbor bought one in chinatown for the kids she was babysitting, then got stuck with it when the parents refused.

so we took it in, and i got the whole set up in a 20 gallon tank, and my son named him/her "tuga".
tuga has quadrupled in size in a year.

we were thinking of getting a companion from chinatown this year, but then we're just supporting the black market industry.

dw suggested we find a young one at a lake, but i think it's cruel to take a wild thing into captivity.

lots of issues for a little dinosaur, huh?

[quicksilver]

Down here, there sale is illegal. So pet shops weren't on top of the new law when inacted and got in trouble.
We had these as kids, and they proved alot of work in proportion to their size. But oh, they were to race!