The Trade Of the Terrapins (La tratta delle tartarughe)

by Giuliano Sadar - from Italian daily newspaper "il manifesto", Feb 28th, 2001
Translated by Riccardo Moschetti - Published with the consent of the Author

They cross the Atlantic Ocean in containers, tipped into boxes that contain up to four hundred animals each. Many of them arrive almost dead, many dead already.

Those which survive end up in pools for stocking, sometimes in cubicles with a temperature below 60F degrees, kept in a catatonic, semi-letargic state, ready to become goods to be sold when the market asks for it.

They are the "small" aquatic turtles.

Condemned to death by the law of profit, those which survive to the horrid conditions of the intensive breedings, to the wrong diets, to the shipment and the stocking (nine out of ten die), will become very big turtles, with a more than 8-inch long carapace.

They eat a lot, and they dirty subsequently. That is why many people give them away. Aquatic turtles could not be kept in captivity.

Most of them come from the Southern States of the United States. Notwithstanding, in Italy there has been a 20 years' trade. They are "living goods", kept in slavery from the very first beginning of their existence.

The business is still thriving, and many operators have an interest in it.
Almost 10 million turtles "crafted" and exported every year to European (as pets) and Asian (as food "specialties") markets.

The shameful "way of the turtles", in fact, starts from the intensive breeding factories of Louisana, on the Mississippi delta. It then crosses the European importers, and finishes with the purchase. Many animal vendors trade them for "dwarf turtles" - which do not exist.

A thriving market, a very strong lobby, that reacts to each protective measure.
In the USA, for years it tried to oppose the 1975's govern ban to sell turtles less than four inches long, that is to say baby terrapins.
This measure had been issued in order to prevent the infections from the salmonella bacteria (about 300.000 cases every year in the US back then, 17% of which allegedly caused by contacts with turtles.) A nightmare for profitability: of the 150 Luisiana turtle farms, which satisfied a USA-Canada demand of 13 million little turtles a year, 100 went out of business.

The National Turtle Farmers' and Shippers' Association, which is made up of the breeders, then tried to introduce the workaround of plastic, infertile, spherical containers, two inches large. A tiny plastic tomb where the "salmonella free" terrapins would be closed until purchase. Or till death, if nobody would buy them. The workaround did not pass.

The American breeders, though, took advantage of the fact that the US law only forbids the sale in the domestic market, but does not pose any restriction on the quality of breeding factories, and tried the exportation card.

That is why, since 1976, thousands of "red ears", Trachemys Scripta Elegans, tarrapins, fell on the European markets.

In Italy, the importation increased exponentially at the end of the 80's. It reached the sum of a million turtles a year at the beginning of the 90's (An unbelievable figure? Just think: a huge mortality, big turnover, big gains).

Until 1997, Trachemys Scripta Elegans turles could be sold in Italian animal shops. Only until 1997, though, because, after long environment-aware battles, "red ears" turtles were added to the long list of protected specied included in the 2nd included document of the CITES (the Convention on the International Trade of Species Endangered with Extinction).

Thus, the European Community has so far prohibited the importation.

Yet, the terrapins' problem is not solved. Trachemys Scripta Elegans samples continue to be sold in Italy. There are the warehouses yet to empty, and a thriving illegal trade.

Then, the mockery: US breeders have begun to breed hybrid species such as Trachemys Scripta Scripta, or Scripta Troostii, which differ very little from the "red eared" ones, and which are called, with a sweetness to be saved for very different situations, "cousins".

Then, some years ago the capture and breeding of other species was started. Among the new species: the various Pseudemys species (Concinna, Nelsoni, Floridana), the Cuora Galbifrons species or the very shy Graptemy Johni. All of these are more difficult to breed species than the Trachemys one, so they are bound to succumb, if not taken care of in the proper way.

Published with the authorization of the Author (see About Us)