Posted on 08/27/2013 5:30:07 PM PDT by kevcol
The sheltered existence of hundreds of desert tortoises will come to a sad and tragic end in early 2014.
A lack of funds at The Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, located outside Las Vegas, Nevada, will cause the sanctuary to close its doors and euthanize about half of its 1,400 tortoise residents, reports the Associated Press.
The facility was created in 1990 when the overdevelopment—namely McMansions, solar plants, and strip malls—of the turtles' native habitats caused the critters to be put on the endangered species list.
The center previously upheld a $1 million annual budget, mostly fueled by "raking in funds from fees imposed on real estate developers who chose to build on the tortoises' habitats," reports the AP. But the housing market collapse in 2008 caused that fund pipeline to dry up. And, as a result, The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) simply can't allocate any more money for another year.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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Soup? Soup is part of the entree. The article clearly said these are dessert tortoises.
Free turtle meat for food stamp recipients?
Back in the day, desert Turtles were pets of sorts. We had one “Touche” at our So Cal. Home in the mid to late 60’s. These suckers slow as they were could dig there way to freedom in no time, as did ours.
I had to take special training to deal with the possibility of meeting one of these things when I worked out at the Nevada Test Site. I knew guys who’d been there 20 years and had never seen one.
Is there anything the government can’t screw up? (No answer required)
I have a friend that has a bunch of them legally. She has 1/3 of an acre and it is almost all a turtle preserve. They are very cool. She had 6 or 7 but recently there were babies so no clue how many she has now.
When I am there I go feed them for her.
I feel a great disturbance in the Force.
Works great on kitchen sinks and countertops too!
There are thousands of tortoise caregivers who would be thrilled to have one. Putting them in the hands of private citizens, however, means the gov no longer has control. They MUST control all wildlife because humans are too destructive to care for animals. The sickness that is at the heart of massive, intrusive government is the real disease. Everyone and everything will suffer endlessly until the rape and plunder of government authority is ended.
They do the same thing with horses. Round them up and kill them even when there are people who are willing to take them on to their property. The government is AWESOME.
Indeed! Release the poor creatures!
No.
What a wonderful parable about the "conservationist" mentality and the bureaucratic culture (unionized?). All employees of this sort of facility are mini-tyrants. But if they can't keep their cushy overpaid jobs, why, kill the thing that they exploited for years.
If they were honest, they would volunteer to continue the program, or allow people who are so inclined to run the program for half the cost.
Sort of the "we had to destroy the endangered critters because they were too important to allow amateurs to take care of them...
Tortoises commonly carry salmonella, so it’s possible to transfer the disease from an infected animal to one that isn’t.
No question about it. However, salmonella in turtles is very common - most may carry it. In their case it doesn’t make them sick, but they easily pass it along to other organisms.
Though a small percentage of sick reptiles are euthanized at the center, officials from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the San Diego Zoo denied an Associated Press report that more than 700 tortoises would be destroyed in the coming months in preparation for the closure.
Allyson Walsh is associate director for the zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, which began managing the conservation center in 2009 under a partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies. She called the idea that so many tortoises would be put down due to budget cuts “a load of hooey.”
“There is no mass effort to kill tortoises to empty the center,” Walsh said.
Link? Source? Good news, if true.
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