Warning! Critically Endangered Sea Turtle Swimming Here!

Multiple newspapers reported today about an incident that happened last weekend in Bavaria. A retired gentleman decided to go fishing that day. Accidentally a snapping-turtle got tangled in his snell, but he didn’t realize as the water was very unclear that day and he thought it was a huge fish that he now had trapped. He pulled the animal out only to realize it was a very aggressive snapping-turtle. Actually importing and breeding of these animals is illegal in Germany due to their aggression so he called the police who brought the animal to a shelter before it could hurt its captor or damage the boat.
—-—-—-—-—-—-——
Re-upload: Apart from some organisations that may sound very familiar to you, like WWF, IFAW, IUCN etc. the website “http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Amphibians-Reptiles-and-Fish/Sea-Turtles/Hawksbill-Turtle.aspx” presents you another organisation that fights for the survival of this animal.

Over 1.500 turtles and tortoises are found each year just in Baden-Wuerttemberg and are brought to a special center that cares for these reptiles. There experts find that some of these reptiles can’t even be sold to a new owner, because they actually shouldn’t even be in Germany. Some of them are endangered while others are too dangerous to make pets and thus they probably were brought in illegally as in Germany trading with animals like these is illegal. “GEA” said that in an article about a vet from Baden-Wuerttemberg who took in the huge tortoise that once belonged to a relative who died some weeks ago. The fact that his tortoise is allowed to run loose even in his praxis rose controversy and made many people complain. While some find it dangerous that this giant carnivorous reptile is allowed to run loose in an area where sometimes small children are around others are more worried about the well-being of the animal. With so much freedom shouldn’t it be easy for her to run away where she is sure to die? Reptiles never went through any form of domestication and thus you shouldn’t keep them as pets even if you inherited them. This species of tortoise can live up to 100 years and its owner doesn’t know what the future holds for him. So, isn’t there a certain risk that someday he will move to a smaller flat due to financial reasons and then be forced to abandon this big pet of his?

I got this from the newspaper “Focus”: After the death of a certain number of very young children doctors started to investigate to find out how they died. An obduction proved that they all succumbed to a disease and even further investigations now show that they got this disease from their parents’ pet reptiles as all these households only had in common that they either had a pet snail, a pet turtle or a pet tortoise. Furthermore the virus these little children died of was found in these animals. Thus “Focus” gives us the piece not to keep any pet reptiles at all. As these examples show that can be very risky – especially if you live with elder people, infants or chronically sick people.

The newspaper “Welt” says that the police of Bengal (India) arrested some men who tried to do illegal trade with an endangered specimen of turtle when they tried to ship them over to another country. After their arresting they told the police that a whole organized gang was behind all of this. Some caught them and raised the younger ones until they reached a certain weight, the men who got arrested tried to bring them to another country and somewhere someone was waiting to sell them on the black market.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
Re-upload: Apart from some organisations that may sound very familiar to you, like WWF, IFAW, IUCN etc. the website “http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Amphibians-Reptiles-and-Fish/Sea-Turtles/Hawksbill-Turtle.aspx” presents you another organisation that fights for the survival of this animal.
Please check out “http://saveourleatherbacks.org/” and “http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Amphibians-Reptiles-and-Fish/Sea-Turtles/” to help.

On the beaches of Mexico a new generation of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles hatched just yesterday. That’s what “Stern” says.