redearslider.com

I live and work in New York city near to Fashion Avenue - and approximately a year ago I saw a shop window filled with turtles. They were all Red Eared Sliders. I was captivated by how peaceful they seemed. I'd always been a fan of shelled species, but rarely ever gotten that close to them. So I started reading up on them and after some time I saw an opportunity to get a couple of hatchling Yellow Bellied Sliders of my own.

I don't often walk down that street with the store that has the turtles in the windows, but I did the other day. The funny thing about this store is that they don't sell pets, they sell jewelry; the turtles are just placed there to catch the eyes of passersby.

A week or two back I did go by and look through that window again and what I saw shocked and appalled me. When I first looked in there I had no knowledge of what a turtle needs or what a healthy turtle looks like, but now that I do, I realize that these turtles are certainly being mistreated. The tank is large, but certainly not large enough for the 25 or so turtles of various sizes that are crammed into it. Some of them show signs of pyramiding or other shell abnormalities and some of them had eye problems. One medium sized turtle had a massive, swollen pink eye that was painful to look at. I recognized telltale signs of shell rot on others. There are very few places to bask, so several of the smaller turtles were forced to bask on the largest turtle, but there aren't even any lights for them to bask under - and the window isn't even facing direct sunlight.

Perhaps worst of all though? They had a New York Times article in the window praising this terrible arrangement.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... rosperity/

It's played off like an immigrant success story and the symbolic nature of the turtle in many Asian cultures is mentioned, but not once in this article is any regard shown for the health or the lives of the animals he keeps in that window.

She acts like she is doing good to them.

Yeah, it's horrible. In the comments one of the women from the store defended their setup so I responded to her (cross-posting here in case it gets taken down);

'I have seen your tank and it is HORRIBLY overcrowded. I estimated approximately 15, but I see you give the number 24. They require ten gallons of water per inch of shell, per turtle. Your turtles are between 2.5 to 10 inches long, and there is no way you have nearly enough space for them. You could probably keep your one biggest turtle in there on its own or two or three of the smaller ones, but this setup is inhumane.

I'd like to know if they ever kill each other, because turtles have a tendency to fight to the death over territory when there are too many in z packed space.

Yes wooden planks rot, so you should stack rocks. They NEED a basking area. When I saw your tank the only thing any of your turtles had to bask on was the largest turtle. If they can't ALL get out of the water to dry off, they can get a deadly & painful condition known as 'Shell Rot'. Some of yours have it.

That cleaning schedule might be OK, if the tank weren't overcrowded. I only have two turtles AND a filter and I clean/scrub my tank weekly.

They also DON'T bask when the water is warm, the water is meant to be cooler than the basking area. Turning on lights in the winter is useless. Your window doesn't even get direct sunlight. Without the lighting on every day they get shell deformities and a condition known as pyramiding (which, yes, some of your turtles have).

I'm sure it's unintentional, but this is animal cruelty. I am both shocked and appalled that the New York times endorsed this. '

Well said.

I think I've seen this display too, a few years ago (when I used to work for the NYT). I wasn't able to get a close look at the display but did notice the over crowding and lack of UVB.

It's right by where I work. Totally disgusting.