Hello! I'm a new user here, and this is my situation:
When I was a child, I had a friend whose brother had received a pet tortoise (from a pet store) for his birthday. But by then, it'd been a few years, and the brother no longer wanted it, and my family ended up taking the tortoise in.
In the beginning I didn't know much about the tortoise, but when I got older, I finally researched and realized that he is a Mojave desert tortoise and is classified as a Threatened species! (We are in the Northeast.)
The problem is that the tortoise is becoming very large, housing during cold months is becoming more and more difficult, and I am soon moving out and will be very limited in my ability to take care of him. I would really like to give him to someone else who would have more resources to accommodate him properly. I have a friend in California (closer to tortoise's probable home state) who would gladly take him in, but given that he is a Threatened species, it is (ironically) illegal to transport him over state lines? My family had no idea about this when we took him in so I don't have any sort of permit or registration for him either. I'm not sure what to do.
Any advice here would really be appreciated! Thank you!
When I was a child, I had a friend whose brother had received a pet tortoise (from a pet store) for his birthday. But by then, it'd been a few years, and the brother no longer wanted it, and my family ended up taking the tortoise in.
In the beginning I didn't know much about the tortoise, but when I got older, I finally researched and realized that he is a Mojave desert tortoise and is classified as a Threatened species! (We are in the Northeast.)
The problem is that the tortoise is becoming very large, housing during cold months is becoming more and more difficult, and I am soon moving out and will be very limited in my ability to take care of him. I would really like to give him to someone else who would have more resources to accommodate him properly. I have a friend in California (closer to tortoise's probable home state) who would gladly take him in, but given that he is a Threatened species, it is (ironically) illegal to transport him over state lines? My family had no idea about this when we took him in so I don't have any sort of permit or registration for him either. I'm not sure what to do.
Any advice here would really be appreciated! Thank you!