La. Turtle Farmers Say 35-Year-Old Ban is Unfair

(CBS)  Since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began, volunteers have been working feverishly to save wildlife affected by oil - including sea turtles. But in Louisiana it's the turtle farmers who are fighting for survival - threatened not by oil but by federal regulations, as CBS News correspondent Mark Straussman reports.

At the Concordia turtle farm in Jonesville, La., Jesse Evans breeds a 100,000 turtles; selling nearly 2 million hatchlings a year. But it's getting harder.

"We survived this so far," Evans said. "But I don't know how long it's going to last."

In the 1950s and 60s, baby red-eared slider turtles were the favored first pet of American children and classrooms. But the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of turtles smaller than 4 inches in 1975, citing a severe risk of salmonella. The FDA says the ban prevents 100,000 children a year from getting infected.

But that's taken a toll on Louisiana's turtle farms. Half have been forced to close. The remaining farmers have filed a lawsuit to lift the ban arguing they now use a detailed cleansing process and raise the turtles in sterile environments.

"Each year they told us it's not good enough and here we are 35 years later, 98.9 percent salmonella free and it's still not good enough," said Eddie Jolly, president of the Independent Turtle Farmers of Louisiana.

Jolly says pets like frogs and snakes which also carry the bacteria are not banned.

"We are FDA's scapegoat," he said.

Louisiana is the only state that regulates turtle farmers and officials say despite the ban, baby turtles are
still being sold, many of them caught in the wild and infected by disease.

In fact, it's estimated that 2 million turtles - most sold illegally in small pet stores, at county fairs or by street vendors - are still being kept as pets.

"We know there is a significant black market of turtles that are raised under whatever conditions," said Dr. Michael Strain, Louisiana's Commissioner of Agriculture.

The CDC's latest numbers show at least one person has died and more than 100 people in 33 states have been sickened through turtle contamination in the last three years. Strain says lifting the ban on his state's regulated turtles would decrease trips to the emergency room and provide a boost for his farmers, increasing sales from $8 million to more than $100 million a year.

And with many of Louisiana's fishermen docked due to the BP oil spill, Evans says the loss of another industry could be devastating.

"It would be a big tragedy for us if we have to quit," he said.

It's something Evans believes science can help him avoid, as long as the government doesn't move at a turtle's pace.

[maguire55]

Been running a turtle rescue for many years and the top surrender is Red ear sliders. Top surrender to every rescue! Look on Petfinder and that's what you'll see. We get about 1-5 requests DAILY for surrenders of RES because they get so big and people don't want to keep a turtle for the life expectancy. I have a slider comeing in that is over 58 years old. Not many want that commitment. NO, the ban should not be lifted. It's not just about the salmonella, which is a factor, but it's also about the turtles being like kittens in shelters. Not enough homes and people end up dumping them. They already have taken over so many lakes, ponds, streams and even sumps that our native turtles are depleting because they can't survive the aggressive behavior of the Red ear slider. Those turtle farmers need to find a new way to make a living besided off of little green turtles. That went out with the 70's. Time to work for a living, not let the turtles do their work for them!

[ericmills]

MAINTAIN THE BAN! The LA turtle industry is trying to mislead the public. The baby turtles MAY be temporarily salmonella-free, but it won't last. Once they are fed meat, they'll soon be re-infected.

Tens of thousands of these hapless babies led miserable lives before their often miserable deaths: starvation, being stepped on, flushed down the toilet, chewed on by the family dog (or kid), usually kept in a tiny, plastic tank ins filthy water and waste. Thanks to this execrable trade, damned near the entire world is having environmental problems due to the spread of this highly-invasive species, no thanks in large part due to the pet trade. It must cease.

Here in California, the State Fish & Game Commission recently imposed a ban on issuing permits for the importation of adult red-eared sliders (and other turtles) for the state's many live animal food markets, due to the problems caused by these non-native turtles when released into local waters (a common, though illegal practice.) It is suspected that the illegal babies are sometimes enter California in these same shipments, either from the Southeastern U.S. or Mexico. ALL the adult turtles are diseased and/or parasitized, and they are routinely butchered alive.

KEEP THE BAN. IT'S THE HEALTHFUL AND HUMANE THING TO DO. Besides, most of Louisiana will soon be under water anyway, what with global warming and sea rise. Leave the turtles alone.

Sincerely,
Eric Mills, coordinator
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Oakland

[hdc77494]

If the govt actually thought salmonella was that scary, they would outlaw chickens. Now THAT attempt at nannydom would be interssting. How about banning cars because 45k people die in them? Tens of thousands protest a war that's killed 500 people a year (out of 250,000), but not a peep for the 800 a WEEK killed in cars.

A better question about this ban is, should the federal government really be deciding whether or not you choose to buy a turtle, or anything else? Do you really want a bunch of bureaucrats to make choices for you?

[margieboy]

You are so right. Completely right. Righter than right. I'm so tired of hyprocritical nanny legislation.

[KeithDrippingSprings]

As ineffective and uninformed as our bureaucrats are in the United States I would not trust that they made a decision based on facts or safety at any time in their history.

Instruct the people how to protect themselves from the salmonella and how to make sure their turtles are clean. Some people are going to die anyway. We lose 45,000 folks a year because of automobile accidents. You don't see the wining mothers who want to out law peanut butter protesting cars. It seems to me the policies and laws are passed to suit some very weird priorities.

[dbannist]

One of the points of the article was that lifting the ban would save lives because people could now get their turtles from a place that was pretty much salmonella free. Lifting the ban would be equivalent to saving lives.

[tmittelstaed]

They want the ban lifted purely for greed. They know that they are the ONLY commercial turtle production operation left, they have the facilities and the institutional knowledge to churn out 10 times the number of turtles. If the ban was lifted they would have a 5-10 year head start over everyone else and turtle demand would jump, and so for a few years they could command their own price and make many many millions during that time. Then once the competition came online, they would be right back to where they are today. This is just someone looking for a windfall, that's it.

[djberson]

I fail to see how anybody could be hurt at this point by a 35 year old ban. After a couple of years of not being able to sell turtles wouldn't you look for another line of work?

[lisalw]

Amazing that people are so ignorant. Why is anyone breeding turtles in the first place?? There are so many awaiting homes because "dime store" turtles are so cute, that is until they grow up needing a massive amount of space, vet care, proper lighting and docking area. Turtles are just like cats, dogs, guinea pigs, mice, any other animal because people don't properly care for them. STOP the PROBLEM and that means HUMANS. And Jourdy228 is correct, more people die from undercooked meat and greens. Check the stats!!!

[Jourdy288]

Ouch. More people died from infected spinach...

[OmegaWolf747]

Bans like this are stupid and ineffective because people just buy the verboten animals on the black market.