Is it Time to Lift the Baby Turtle Ban?

Many of us who grew up before the mid-1970s had one: A tiny, red-eared slider turtle that spent its short, miserable life in a shallow bowl complete with an island and plastic palm tree. None of the turtles I owned ever seemed to be feeling that "aloha spirit."

Then in 1975, the FDA banned the U.S. sale of turtles smaller than 4 inches — not as an act of kindness, but because the little critters posed a severe risk of salmonella. The FDA said the ban prevented 100,000 children from becoming infected each year.

Now the Independent Turtle Farmers of Louisiana have filed a federal lawsuit against the FDA, saying it’s high time the ban was removed. The industry has been facing economic hardship ever since China, which was the largest market for the turtles, began growing its own and undercutting Louisiana farmers, forcing half the businesses to close.

According to a recent CBS Evening News report, the turtle farmers are arguing that the ban is no longer necessary since nowadays the turtles are raised in a sterile environment. They say a detailed cleansing process removes almost 99 percent of the salmonella.

How did kids get salmonella from the turtles in the first place? By either putting the turtles in their mouths, or putting their fingers in their mouths after handling the turtles — actually "manhandling" is a more appropriate term, from what I remember. Unlike goldfish, which had to stay safely in their bowls, you could easily pluck tiny turtles off their plastic islands and try to race them on the carpet, or give them a ride on your dog's back, or let them go for a swim in the pool. (Let me clarify that by "you" I mean my friend’s evil brothers.)

Although slider turtles can live to be 70 years old, I don’t remember anyone's turtles even surviving to adulthood. Most of them died within a few months after they were purchased. The Humane Society of the United States confirms this: In its report, Baby Turtles and Children: A Dangerous Combination,  it says experts believed that the turtles "suffered an extremely high mortality rate within one year of purchase because of improper care, neglect, and abandonment."

Despite the ban, the HSUS reports that over the past few years there has been a surge in the illegal sale of baby turtles by online stores, street vendors, souvenir stands and even pet shops that offer them "free" with the purchase of a tank and supplies. There has simultaneously been a rise in reptile-associated salmonellosis. In 2007, a four-week-old girl died after becoming infected from a turtle bought at a flea market, and dozens of other cases have been reported in several states. Infected turtles also wreak havoc on the environment. When people get bored with them and dump them in ponds and lakes, the salmonella spreads to wild turtles.

Even if the turtles hatched in the Louisiana farms are almost salmonella-free, Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, told MSNBC they can nonetheless continue to shed the bacteria throughout their lives. "The bacteria is in their intestinal tract. Sometimes they shed it, sometimes they don’t, so it’s not easy to tell when the animals are perfectly salmonella-free, even following treatment," he said.

"It would be a big tragedy for us if we have to quit," Jesse Evans, a turtle farmer from Jonesville, La., told CBS Evening News. While my heart goes out to Louisianans and the disasters they've endured, I think it would be a bigger tragedy for turtles, humans and the environment if the turtle farmers didn't have to quit.

Photo credit: Gary Denness