FYI: Abandoned turtles

[Marguerite Whilden]

Marguerite Whilden

November 14, 2006 at 1:41 am #24283

Abandoned turtles find haven By Dana M. Nichols November 13, 2006Record Staff Writer SAN ANDREAS – The retirees living in Stan Reif’s yard won’t win any marathons. But a lot of them may outlive Reif, a healthy 54-year-old Coca-Cola delivery driver and family man. That’s because these retirees are former pets – turtles and tortoises – that were abandoned by their owners for one reason or another. Some, especially the desert tortoises, may have outlived their former owners. “The desert tortoises I have, people picked them up in the desert 50 and 60 years ago, when it was legal,” Reif said. Desert tortoises are believed to live 70 to 100 years. California’s desert tortoise is now a protected species and collecting them from the wild is banned. Even the smaller box turtles in a pen on the other side of Reif’s house can live 50 or 60 years, he said. Reif first owned a turtle when he was a child. But not until eight years ago did he assume the role of protector for the region’s hard-luck, hard-shell critters. That’s when he volunteered to help Micke Grove Zoo in Lodi. “They were doing away with their red-eared slider display of 13,” Reif said. Red-eared sliders are a water-loving turtle native to the American South. They now float happily in a shallow artificial pond in front of Reif’s house perched on a hillside east of San Andreas. And the red-eared sliders have plenty of company. “This is a painted turtle,” Reif said, pointing to another amphibian. “There’s probably 70 turtles in here,” Reif said of the small pond. Then there’s the dozen or so box turtles in their pen, a separate and much larger pen with a couple of African sulcata tortoises – now 50 or 60 pounds each but with the potential to reach 250 pounds and the size of a coffee table – and an assortment of other species, including a map turtle, a side neck turtle and an African leopard tortoise. He thinks he might have 150 or so in all. He isn’t sure and plans to do an inventory, with careful marking of each animal so it won’t be counted twice, when the weather gets warm. Of course, the population may have grown by then, as he regularly gets referrals from Micke Grove Zoo when people need to get rid of a pet. “He is marvelous,” Joanne Larsen, education coordinator for Micke Grove, said of Reif. “He is a sanctuary for neglected, unwanted pets that are so prolific in the pet industry.” Reif says he gets lots of help, including from the Stockton S-Mart Foods grocery at Alpine and Pacific avenues that gives him buckets of vegetables to feed the tortoises. Larsen said people have all kinds of reasons for bringing their turtle problems to the zoo. “Sometimes people will be moving away and can’t take it with them,” she said. “They will find one on their street, sometimes injured. Sometimes a dog will bring it home.” Richard Turner, a Lodi veterinarian and member of the American Veterinary Association of Amphibians and Reptiles, sometimes performs surgery on tortoises after they have been struck by cars, repairing their shells with wire and fiberglass. One such fiberglass-repaired tortoise is recovering in Reif’s yard. Turner said that turtles and tortoises no longer wanted as pets should not be released into the wild, because they will likely be carrying parasites and diseases that could then spread to other animals. He and other animal experts urge people to think very carefully before making a pet out of a turtle or tortoise. “If you are going to do that, take the responsibility of learning that there are certain requirements for diet and habitat,” Turner said. Some species, such as the African sulcatas, are also strong enough to pose a danger to owners who let their fingers get too close, Turner said. “They can pull back and hurt a finger if you didn’t watch it.” Snapping turtles, which are illegal in California, are also dangerous. Turner said the various species of box turtles may make good pets. “They are good little guys, personable.” Reif said that Russian tortoises are his favorite for a pet. But even box turtles and Russian tortoises live a long time. So people who want to make pets of them should have an inheritance plan. Reif admits, however, that he doesn’t yet know who will be caring for the turtles and tortoises in his haven once he’s gone. “My daughter said, ‘Don’t you dare leave them to me,’ ” Reif said. Contact Mother Lode reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 754-9534 or dnichols@… Marguerite WhildenThe Terrapin InstituteP. O. Box 51Edgewater, MD 21037Voice 410 370 9171FAX 410 757 9268www.terrapininstitute.org “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”

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