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 #1726744


Mikeornata
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 The final word on the wild caught issue!

Go to this link. Pay particular attention to paragraph 5. I posted this link on another thread but figured that one was butchered so bad, it would be better to start a new one. Think about this the next time you want to steal an animal from the wild!Wild Caught



05/06/08  05:21am

 #1726750


Mikeornata
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   Message To: Mikeornata   In reference to Message Id: 1726744


 The final word on the wild caught issue!

Consider this.
I grew up near a wooded area in east Tennessee of less than a square mile. I spent many summers in those woods, and between the ages of 10 and 14 i probably removed more than twenty Eastern Box Turtles from that small patch of trees. Some were returned, others died due to my lack of experience or improper husbandry. Many were stolen from the enclosure i built.
Back in those days it was commonplace to see an EBT crossing the road or munching on a worm in my neighbors front yard. I am almost 30 now, and its been over 10 years since Ive seen an EBT in my woods. I still take walks in those woods hoping to find one (not with the intent to remove it of course).
I feel now that I am personally responsible for destroying an entire population of turtles. So forgive me if I sound like a jerk on this issue, but I have seen first hand the damage that can be done by one uneducated, greedy, individual.



05/06/08  05:46am

 #1729607


Tortoiseshell
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   Message To: Mikeornata   In reference to Message Id: 1726750


 The final word on the wild caught issue!

Well, you were just a kid. I bet a lot of people do the same thing. Anyways, it’s not only because of removal, their habitats are being ruined!
05/08/08  06:19pm

 #1730024


JackAsp
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   Message To: Tortoiseshell   In reference to Message Id: 1729607


 The final word on the wild caught issue!

Agreed. But in the habitats that do remain, most of us have less decision as to whether it gets paved over or not than we do over whether or not one of the turtles there ends up in our house.
And "rescuing" wildcaught turtles from pet shops just encourages them to keep buying, so, supply and demand being what it is, the wild population would be better off if the first ones you see in the shop, call them Generation One, was left in the store to die, thereby giving the pet shops a hint that maybe they should stick with gerbils or something. If Generation One is purchased, it continues to add nothing to the wild population, and the pet shop goes on to order Generation Two, which then dies anyway. So instead of one turtle dead and one still free, alive, and breeding, you get one dead and one locked in a cage.
05/09/08  02:31am


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