Posted on 10/18/2009 5:15:54 AM PDT by rellimpank
Clark County commissioners voted last week to stop picking up and caring for unwanted pet Mojave Desert tortoises as of the end of the year.
The county has been funding the care of the cast-off tortoises at a 220-acre conservation center operated by state and federal agencies.
About 98 percent of the 1,000 tortoises delivered yearly to the center are unwanted pets, county officials say, and all those extra tortoises have pushed the county's yearly tortoise maintenance costs to $700,000. The county also pays $104,000 a year to a private firm that drives around collecting the critters.
Federal wildlife officials spoke against the county discontinuing the programs, arguing the county should do its part to ensure residents don't dump their pet desert tortoises in ... well, the desert, where they're likely to survive, since that's where they come from.
(Me, I'd bet on them heading right home, just like Lassie, albeit a bit slower. They clearly prefer our suburban buffets.)
The feds contend the tame tortoises might spread a respiratory infection to their wild brethren. In fact, old-timers say the condition, known as "white-eye," has long been endemic among wild tortoises. Where's the control experiment to demonstrate desert releases exacerbate the problem? If some nutrient deficiency contributes, who's to say a few years of yard feeding might not help?
(Excerpt) Read more at lvrj.com ...
Turtle soup for the homeless...coming up!
Wait a minute - have I just landed in the Twilight Zone?
People buy tortoises (not from the gubmint) and then decide they don't want them.
So the gubmint pays Acme Tortoise Transportation $100k to collect them and deliver them to the Tortoise Ranch.
The gubmint spends $700k to outfit this ranch, but won't sell them ?
Do I have this right?
Government wasting our time, money and resources in every facet of our lives. There is no end to this idiocy and it is slowly consuming everything.
sell them on Ebay.
At the time the Commonwealth (what the State likes to call itself) was facing severe budget shortfalls, with not enough money to fund cushy jobs for Coupe Deval's payroll patriots. I picked up the brochure, holding it at arm's length with two fingers, I said to my wife, "Where can they cut? Where can they possibly cut one penny, without harming the most needy and helpless members of society?"
Next, they'll come for the most needy and helpless turtles.
all those extra tortoises have pushed the county’s yearly tortoise maintenance costs to $700,000. The county also pays $104,000 a year to a private firm that drives around collecting the critters.
The system is working. You don’t get good managment (decision making) until the money gets tight...........
Great article. He nails it.
“Turtle soup for the homeless...coming up”!
...with a little grated gummit cheese!
The only pandemic in this nation is INSANITY. And it comes basically from the Federal government.
--as an aside to this , several years ago, either the Forest Service or the BLM installed about thirty miles of burro/tortoise fence along both sides (obviously) of SH 160 (Las Vegas to Pahrump) at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, to keep burros/tortoises off the road---
if you clean them out, cut off the bottom, the tops can be clapped together making a horse galloping sound that would be good background for america going over the cliff
When I read these amounts I could only say WHAT!
And I say that a couple times a day when I come across this insanity.
Where I live the Environmental Protection Department decided that this little dam was no longer needed. So at a cost of about 100K it was taken down. The water level dropped a little (the dam actually didn’t do anything remarkable), then went back to where it was before.
The WHAT factor was that DEP people spent 3 or 4 days wading the creek collecting mussels for relocation. The place they were never dried out!
Now how much did that cost the taxpayers? Probably 100 bucks per mussel?
We have really gone over the edge and need to claw our way back to the top of the cliff.
I’m happy to report that in my municipality tortoise maintenance costs are quite low.
Well, they might have cut the $104,000 expense of collecting more, but they didn’t say they’re getting rid of the 1000 turtles they already have, so they’re still going to pay for their upkeep.
I wonder how they can tell which turtles were wild vs. which were former pets. If the turtle is on the side of the road, how can you tell where it came from?
“If the turtle is on the side of the road, how can you tell where it came from?”
You can’t fool me. I know that is a trick question.....
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