update on National Reptile Breeders Expo Daytona Beach 2015

[turtlemanfla88]

well for once there was a lot of turtles and tortoises instead of snakes. do not get me wrong snakes are cool ,but I am a turtle and tortoise guy.

FWC= Florida wildlife Commission was walking around the expo in force.
Did anyone see there was a lot of wild caught animals and people pushing the law by selling captive born loggerhead musks (Minor minor) and Ornate diamond-back terrapins?.

There were Mexican tortoises for sale?.rare Rhinoclemys wood turtles?.3-4 inch captive born matamata for $300 each in boxes is there anyone really hatching out that many?. humhum

 

[wellington]

What no pics?

 

[Yvonne G]

Where are the pictures, man? You can't tease us with a thread like this and show no pictures! It's just not kosher.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

i apologize ,but my daughter had my I-phone and she was at the clubs table taking pics and videos of her Sulcata . i did plan to take pics ,but you guys know you do not see people all year then you run into them and start talking and talking etc. I saw and talked to so many people I never made it through all the rows of vendors.
It was announced at Turtle Night by Wayne Hill both Chapters of The Turtle and Tortoise Club of Florida will run Turtle Night on Friday night starting in 2016!. I will take pics next year and figure out how to upload them.

maybe Turtlepete or someone else got some pics or videos?.

 

[Anthony P]

Wish I could have made it, man. Too bad.

Stinks that there were a lot of WC and/or natives there.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Shame bout the wild caught rare species.
So what were the FWC there for ?

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I agree with you about the wild caught animals it is sad that my eleven and ten year old can pick out wild caught animals,but they also talk and ID animals by their Latin names not their common names.
We all need to remember what my kids told me once we choose the animal the animal did not choose us ,but depends on us till the day they die.
The loop hole about the natives is the law reads can possess two Diamond-back terrapins and two Loggerhead musks and says nothing about selling babies.
do not get me started about how we see FLA box,Gulf-Coast for sale everywhere and we know the adults were taken from the wild in FL.
I work with Russians and in the Radiata English edition they talked about Russians were being exported 40,000 in one year no species can deal with that collecting pressure and not decline.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I saw FWC walking around ,but i did not see anyone getting citations.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

If we all work together and put the animals first and police ourselves when the anti's try to take our animals or try to give us more restrictions we are United.

 

[domalle]

But we are all mostly looking the other way on the trade in Russian or Horsfield's tortoises. I agree it is unsupportable. See David Lee's paper
on the wholesale pillaging of this little tortoise from its austere environment and sale around the world as pets.
This is a replication of what happened to many of the European, Mediterranean and North African tortoises all those years they were being trucked out
of their respective environments by the thousands and impressed into the pet trade.
And it has also happened right here in America as the trade in three-toed box turtles to Europe and Asia was humming along.
Shame.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Just got back from Gibraltar, which is British, where the pet shop was selling wild caught Russians, kept in a tiny cage on dry wood shaving substrate and being fed iguana pellet food, which they told me they didn't seem to eat. No water bowl in the enclosure.
Half of them already had puffy and swollen eyes which they couldn't open ( there was a coiled bulb, too) and all bar two were inactive and largely unresponsive.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I agree David Lee did so much for turtles and tortoises. I showed my kids the Barbque place across from the expo where I had lunch with him a couple of years ago. He is a Legend and always will be a legend to me.

 

[domalle]

I agree David Lee did so much for turtles and tortoises. I showed my kids the Barbque place across from the expo where I had lunch with him a couple of years ago. He is a Legend and always will be a legend to me.

Dave was a dear friend of mine as well.
I visited him at his facility in North Carolina and drank many a toast.
I was devastated by his death.
He was a dedicated great guy.
But many people in the turtle community resented his intrusion in their business.

 

[SouthernRFT]

I didn't take really any photos either but have a few. Sorry no idea why when I uploaded them they turned sideways.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

So what were the FWC there for ?

~ One reason was probably to enforce the state permit to display and sell in Florida. It is about $50 and is required to publicly display and sell tortoises in Florida. This has been an issue with many out of state and foreign vendors in the past.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

FWC= Florida wildlife Commission was walking around the expo in force.

~ This is typical, look at all the illegal activity lately within the reptile community. Smuggling, fraud, scams, non-permit compliance, illegal possession cases etc.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

well for once there was a lot of turtles and tortoises

~ I had several calls relating that the only aldabra at the show for sale was one our hatchlings produced five years ago!

 

[Anthony P]

The writing of David S. Lee changed my life. I use the resentment I have for never meeting him as a reminder of how important it is to cultivate personal relationships with "turtle people" who have their heads on straight. There are only a select few of us in a hobby that is already unorthodox and relatively small.

Well said, Mark, that we need to stick together and keep our hobby in mind when we choose to think selfishly when trying to turn a quick buck, doing something that makes us all look bad. We must keep in mind that classified ads are he most public record of our hobby. And how do you think classifieds make us all look?