This is a story of sheer stupidity on someones behalf and the nightmare that I had to deal with following.
It all started back in September 2013 when I received a phone call from a local animal shelter. They knew to call me because I am the only guy who will take turtles or tortoises without question. Anywho, the gave me a quick story saying that a lady just found a turtle of some kind in their front yard and they were going to let it go if no one wanted it. So I contacted the lady who found the turtle and she had zero knowledge of turtles so I added her on Facebook and started sending her random pics of turtles and tortoises. She also mentioned that it had the owners name and phone number written on the turtles shell; so I told her to call the owner and go from there. She called and left a message for the guy to call her back. Meanwhile between our conversation on Facebook, she positively identified the turtle as pic #9, a russian tortoise. I told her to call texas parks and wildlife to so what they. Before she called them she got a phone call from the guy "Joe Reyes" and he said " Ohh i got that turtle like last week from like my buddy in Houston, and he wouldn't eat or nuthin and so I just let him go in the concho river." So as this being evidence to him letting go a non native species I told her that they could probably charge him with that. Anywho I waited to see what was to transpire with Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens; I didn't know if they were going to carry out the charges and take the tortoise or what. After about 4hrs I got a phone call back from the lady saying that the game wardens couldn't press any charges and that I could come pick up the "russian" tortoise. So I was all giddy inside to take in a russian tortoise, sooooo happy. Well as I showed up to their front door they came outside with a box. Remember i'm still excited out of my mind up to this point. Then I opened the box and S#$T hit the fan. It was a male " Texas Tortoise."
The guy was loaded with parasites and super emaciated, I didn't even know if he was going to pull through the next day. I told the lady what she had found and that it is an Endangered species and what it would take to get the permits to own one and what the penalty of owning one without a permit would be. So at this point it was like playing hot potato because she definitely didn't want it and I didn't want it because I don't have the permits. I had to really think about what I was going to do next so I called Kelly!! "Kelly is a freaking saint!!!!" With it being September and the temps were already dropping, this guy was soon to go into brumation in a life threatening state. "Of course it would happen like this, when it rains it poors." Anyways I got him all dewormed and rehydrated and back on a natural staple and he gained nearly a pound! Once I saw that he was in the clear he went into brumation and I put him in a 72F temp regulates room for the winter. Meanwhile all of this was happening our local nature center that i'm involved with actually had the permits to own up to 6 Texas Tortoises. It was almost December when I found out the news of the permits, during those few months I was sweating like a pig trying to find someone who had the permits locally; thankfully they let me be his prime care-taker at the nature center where he now resides legally. So.....yay the Tortoise is now doing great he came out of brumation last week and he likes his new habitat they built for me.....but it'll never be the real thing. So your probably asking yourself " What happened to Joe Reyes?" Well the day that I turned him over to the Nature Center, the took his phone number of the shell (This guy is an Idiot...lols who puts their name and number on an endangered species) and contacted the game Wardens and he did get fined
So in the end everything was a huge success, but it was a lot of work and a lot of time . Being scared to death of not finding someone with permits in time was beyond scary, but I guess God had his hand in all of this.
What I would love for everyone to take from this story is that sometimes taking risks pays off, but most importantly "Please leave animals in their natural habitats!!!!!!!" It would really lower stress levels for the animals and people having to rescue them.
Anywho, here are some pics of "Joe" right before he went into brumation ( FYI he looks a million times better in these pics than when I first received him). Also look at the phone number and name on his shell, it was written in sharpie of all things :/
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Anyone ever had a rescue like this?[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
It all started back in September 2013 when I received a phone call from a local animal shelter. They knew to call me because I am the only guy who will take turtles or tortoises without question. Anywho, the gave me a quick story saying that a lady just found a turtle of some kind in their front yard and they were going to let it go if no one wanted it. So I contacted the lady who found the turtle and she had zero knowledge of turtles so I added her on Facebook and started sending her random pics of turtles and tortoises. She also mentioned that it had the owners name and phone number written on the turtles shell; so I told her to call the owner and go from there. She called and left a message for the guy to call her back. Meanwhile between our conversation on Facebook, she positively identified the turtle as pic #9, a russian tortoise. I told her to call texas parks and wildlife to so what they. Before she called them she got a phone call from the guy "Joe Reyes" and he said " Ohh i got that turtle like last week from like my buddy in Houston, and he wouldn't eat or nuthin and so I just let him go in the concho river." So as this being evidence to him letting go a non native species I told her that they could probably charge him with that. Anywho I waited to see what was to transpire with Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens; I didn't know if they were going to carry out the charges and take the tortoise or what. After about 4hrs I got a phone call back from the lady saying that the game wardens couldn't press any charges and that I could come pick up the "russian" tortoise. So I was all giddy inside to take in a russian tortoise, sooooo happy. Well as I showed up to their front door they came outside with a box. Remember i'm still excited out of my mind up to this point. Then I opened the box and S#$T hit the fan. It was a male " Texas Tortoise."
The guy was loaded with parasites and super emaciated, I didn't even know if he was going to pull through the next day. I told the lady what she had found and that it is an Endangered species and what it would take to get the permits to own one and what the penalty of owning one without a permit would be. So at this point it was like playing hot potato because she definitely didn't want it and I didn't want it because I don't have the permits. I had to really think about what I was going to do next so I called Kelly!! "Kelly is a freaking saint!!!!" With it being September and the temps were already dropping, this guy was soon to go into brumation in a life threatening state. "Of course it would happen like this, when it rains it poors." Anyways I got him all dewormed and rehydrated and back on a natural staple and he gained nearly a pound! Once I saw that he was in the clear he went into brumation and I put him in a 72F temp regulates room for the winter. Meanwhile all of this was happening our local nature center that i'm involved with actually had the permits to own up to 6 Texas Tortoises. It was almost December when I found out the news of the permits, during those few months I was sweating like a pig trying to find someone who had the permits locally; thankfully they let me be his prime care-taker at the nature center where he now resides legally. So.....yay the Tortoise is now doing great he came out of brumation last week and he likes his new habitat they built for me.....but it'll never be the real thing. So your probably asking yourself " What happened to Joe Reyes?" Well the day that I turned him over to the Nature Center, the took his phone number of the shell (This guy is an Idiot...lols who puts their name and number on an endangered species) and contacted the game Wardens and he did get fined
So in the end everything was a huge success, but it was a lot of work and a lot of time . Being scared to death of not finding someone with permits in time was beyond scary, but I guess God had his hand in all of this.What I would love for everyone to take from this story is that sometimes taking risks pays off, but most importantly "Please leave animals in their natural habitats!!!!!!!" It would really lower stress levels for the animals and people having to rescue them.
Anywho, here are some pics of "Joe" right before he went into brumation ( FYI he looks a million times better in these pics than when I first received him). Also look at the phone number and name on his shell, it was written in sharpie of all things :/
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[/URL[URL=http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/meanandgreen1/media/IMG_1203.jpg.html]
Anyone ever had a rescue like this?[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
