Reptile Dealer Is Guilty of Selling Undersize Turtles
A Florida-based reptile dealer in July was convicted and sentenced in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale for selling undersize turtles—a violation of public health law.
Strictly Reptile Inc. (Hollywood, Fla.) was required to forfeit almost 7,000 turtles and tortoises, seized by investigators in May, pay a criminal fine of $5,000 and serve two years on probation.
As part of the probation agreement, Strictly Reptile must secure signed documents from buyers indicating their awareness of legal restrictions on the sale or holding for sale of undersized turtles, and file semi-annual reports documenting its inventory and sales to the court’s probation officer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations, and the Fish & Wildlife Service.
Strictly Reptile was charged with selling approximately 1,000 undersize turtles in March to a souvenir business in Panama City, Fla. According to investigators, the company’s owner admitted he did not ask customers why they were buying the turtles in order not to lose sales.
The sale of turtles with a carapace length shorter than 4 inches has been banned since 1975 in order to minimize the risk of turtle-associated salmonellosis in people. The regulation is enforced by FDA in cooperation with state and local health authorities. [September 2008 PET AGE]
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