Replies

Officials in charge of the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center are fielding calls and refuting claims that hundreds of tortoises will be killed when the facility at the southern edge of Las Vegas runs out of money and closes late next year.

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.