PSA for turtle lovers

hippieghost:

So PETA has recently posted an article about helping turtles across the road. While this sounds great, the article is loaded with nasty images of turtles who have been crushed by cars. The images are close-up, gory, and overall terrible to look at. So, for those of you out there who don’t want to see that, I’m making a post with happy pictures instead:

So turtles are amazing. I mean, look at that face

And often times during the warm months you will see turtles on the roadway just trying to get where they’re going. Unlike this little guy who’s already found the perfect spot

If you see a turtle in the road. The best thing to do is put on your hazard lights and safely pull over. watch for other cars as you examine the situation. Most turtles you come across aren’t super aggressive, so if you go to pick them up, the only thing they’ll do is this

if the turtle isn’t a snapping turtle or other aggressive turtle, simply pick it up like a hamburger to reduce the risk of injuring it, and take it to the side of the road that it’s trying to get to.

If it is a snapping turtle like this guy

or another kind of more agressive turtle, keep your distance. try to find a stick or something else you can goad it into focusing on. If you’re lucky, it will keep trying to attack the stick and you can “kite” it across the road. If not, call animal control and wait until they arrive. They’re trained to handle the situation.

In either case DO NOT take and wild turtles or tortoises home. I realize that they are incredible adorable

but you can seriously disrupt their environment and the overall population by keeping wild animals as pets. If you are looking for a pet reptile, it’s best to adopt from a shelter, or if you can’t find one, find a breeder that raises their reptiles ethically.

In addition, do not take them to a different area either, even if it’s a nearby lake in town. You could be taking it too far away from it’s home, lessening it’s chance of survival. Only take it to where it was already going.

Thank you all for reading, please share to help spread the word. Images I posted are not mine, with the exception of the sulcata tortoise hiding in the grass (That’s my shy boy).

Its that time of year again! Keep your eyes open!