Posted on 09/01/2009 6:24:21 PM PDT by SJackson
300 of 500 turtles seized from Steve Santhuff diedBy Andria Simmons
When some of Steve Santhuff’s rare and endangered turtle collection was returned to him last week, it should have been a victorious moment.
Elissa Eubanks, eeubanks@ajc.com Steve Snathuff received about 128 turtles back from the Department of Natural Resources, which had seized his collection of about 500 in 2005.
But Santhuff is far from happy.
While the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has given back 128 of about 500 turtles seized from Santhuff in 2005, along with 14 hatchlings that were birthed in the interim, more than 300 of the turtles the amateur herpetologist lovingly tended to for two decades have died. The state puts the death toll at 309, but Santhuff claims the number is 362.
The other turtles were whisked away only to be returned maimed or deformed.
“They are not beautiful turtles anymore,” Santhuff said. “It’s almost sad to look at them. They are scarred and pitted, and one of them had their leg bit off by an otter.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
A million $ worth of turtles is a lot of turtles.
I’ll bet the death stats on social workers and forced foster care on human children far outweight these turtle numbers.
There’s not enough info in the article to say whether the man broke any “laws”, but it’s probably safe to say that he did, at least according to the Georgia DNR.
Pick up line of the year:
“What do I do? Why, I am an amateur herpetologist!”
Maybe. Sounds like they would have returned most of them, if they hadn't killed them first.
I bet you’re right.
I hope he gets every penny. What they did to him and his pets was unconscionable. It was very Alinsky of them to blame him for what they were doing.
If someone took my four cats and gave me back one sick, battered one, I would spare no expense getting back at whomever did it to me an my animals.
Should be a payday. The police forcibly assumed custody.
Wow! He sure had quite a set-up ... looked clean and well maintained.
The Ga DNR is far more than a bunch of bureaucrats, they are a rouge para-military agency infiltrated with radical PETA types.
They aren’t bound by the same laws as other LEO agencies, they do not need search warrants to enter private land, homes or vehicles. They order “subjects” about at gunpoint and treat all they encounter as guilty till proven innocent.
They need to be defunded and their guns taken from them.
My thoughts exactly. I have been following a case of a Baptist children’s pastor in Florida. He had his children removed two years ago when they took their youngest daughter to the hospital for an obstruction in her intestines. He made a doctor mad and the doctor called CPS. He hasn’t seen his children in TWO years. His oldest daughter was raped while she was in foster care.
Needs to sue them royally.
State and federal wildlife officers confiscated turtles from Santhuff, 37, of Lawrenceville, as part of a criminal investigation into allegations that he illegally possessed them. A Gwinnett County jury acquitted Santhuff of criminal charges in February 2008.
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