Releasing of animals into the wild.

[Deku]

Ived been noticing rising cases of people releasing animals into the wild as of lately. Where I used to work at, I remembered this specific customer who came to me with the question if I could take in his turtle(like a ton of people do), feeling somewhat of a pity for the man, I asked him "is this a captive bred animal?". He replied to yes, that he got it from hamburg, PA reptile expo a year ago. He simply couldnt keep it. It grew too big for him. He didnt plan ahead and thought "maybe ill just give it to someone or release it.". I accepted his request, exchanged numbers. Following day, his wife had set the turtle free in a lake. The turtle being a painted turtle wasnt that bad. But the fact it was in captivity was. It could infect the natural wild life and pose a threat. It seems alot of people are releasing their animals. Not just turtles, but frogs, toads, treefrogs, hamsters, rabbits, fish. And people wonder why there are going to be ban on exotics? Its due to the ignorance of the public!

The sad part is... People like that tend to be ignorant and arrogant. Refusing to listen to others. I lost my job because I refused to sell an animal to a man who didnt know or care for the said animal. Man even stated he would simply give it away or feed it to his other pet(dog), should his 9 year old son get bored with it. I used to hear lots of people make absurd comments of the sort. I saw people literary mistreating animals. Customers with turtles, used to get refered to me. Once this old woman, came in with a tiny 3 year old red eared slider in a 2 gallon critter keeper tank. The woman wanted to upgrade to a glass tank. I told her 2.5 gallon aquarium isnt even enough. I even tried to get her to buy a cheaper large 55gallon rubbermaid. But the woman was so stubborn. The irony of it was that she kept asking for my advice right after I told her its not good for the animal.

Ived seen people release animals into the wild. At which times I dont know what to do. Because I dont want to seem as Iam harrassing someone. But I feel bad because Iam right there and could try to stop them. Same people keep going to stores to buy same animals. I assume the released animals died off. But still....

How do you guys deal with this sort of ignorance in general? is there anything at all I can do?

Its because of these jerks that us reptile/amphibian enthuasts are being blamed for. Because these people watch other people keep certain animals in a movie and try to imitate them. I had a friend wanting to get a bullfrog after seeing that movie cheaper by the dozen. Little kids especially try to imitate, and their parents let them and end up giving proper care.

Is there like any way that someone could give public speaches to raise awareness of what they are doing?

[Kurt]

Just tell people the reason why its a bad idea and why its illegal! If you catch some doing this, you report them to Fish & Wildlife (DNR)

Also there are for subspecies of painted turtle, Chrysemys picta and they are not all native to the same area. They are all distinctly different too.
western, C. p. belli
eastern, C. p. picta
southern, C. p. dorsalis
midland, C. p. marginata

[Jace]

I know when I was given Poe, I was under strict orders not to release him-not that I would. When I get an animal, it's for the lifetime of that animal. When I received confirmation of Poe being an American Bullfrog and I started doing research on this species, I was amazed and appalled at the stories I've read about them being released with no thought into a completely unassuming ecosystem. With devastating results. I think whatever can be done to raise awareness and stop this from happening is a good thing: for all people, ecosystems and animals.

[Deku]

Just tell people the reason why its a bad idea and why its illegal! If you catch some doing this, you report them to Fish & Wildlife (DNR)

Also there are for subspecies of painted turtle, Chrysemys picta and they are not all native to the same area. They are all distinctly different too.
western, C. p. belli
eastern, C. p. picta
southern, C. p. dorsalis
midland, C. p. marginata

Yes I know yhe different subspecies. guy said it was an eastern painter. But I strongly doubt it, if he got it from the pa, hamburg festival either that was an illegal buy or he got the wrong species. Because any native animal to pa is illegal to buy in pa. Easterns range through pa. It goes from the middle east of the states to the upper parts. I dont know if it reaches florida tis why I said middle east. But yeah. I dont know the dnr. And how am I supposed to get the names of the people throwing the animals away?

[Deku]

I know when I was given Poe, I was under strict orders not to release him-not that I would. When I get an animal, it's for the lifetime of that animal. When I received confirmation of Poe being an American Bullfrog and I started doing research on this species, I was amazed and appalled at the stories I've read about them being released with no thought into a completely unassuming ecosystem. With devastating results. I think whatever can be done to raise awareness and stop this from happening is a good thing: for all people, ecosystems and animals.

I agree. I also think companies should get creative when making terrariums/aquariums and enclosures for animals so they are "cheaper", yet durable and easy to acquire. Company still makes profit. We dont get jipped of tons of money, animal gets larger cage. Like I keep thinking "how much space that animal would have if it was free" and I feel bad. So ived b een trying to make their space more free. for my rabbit I give her constant walks, and I let her roam a room. Shes litter trained and I just thump down when she goes to a dangerous corner. People should give better care to their pets. Bullfrogs dont belong in 10gallon aquariums. And its what I saw where I used to work at, and people bought em and kept them in 10gs. The storeI used to work at now keeps 6 crayfish in the same aquarium(10gallons), all mature crayfish bare in mind. Their systems worked in sumps. Meaning "shared bacteria" was in order. they keep fire belly newts, and fire belly toads in said system with fish*think of petsmart* and they kept the chytrid fungus carrying african clawed frogs in the same system as the one with the newts and toads. Once I saw them put these frogs with larger fish. Some frogs were found dead the next morning. Like I remembered they had a list of deads. Literary over 20-30 fish died per day. Fish were over priced. I remembered they get some that are 5cents and sell em for 10bucks. on top of that they give customers wrong care so they will buy more useless bullcrap. I remembered the animals they get were all wild caught. Same applies to other stores. They say its "captive bred", but if it isnt a beardie or something easy to breed chances are its wild caught. No joke.