CONSERVATION groups are warning pet owners about purchasing hatchling Horsfield’s tortoises which are being imported with herpes and other contagious diseases.
The hatchlings are being offered for sale as “captive-bred” animals but are suspected of being bred from wild females or harvested from the wild in Uzbekistan and Russia.
Unlike other species of tortoise, no licence is needed to import Horsfield’s tortoises into Ireland once they are “captive-bred”. The importation and sale of wild creatures is strictly banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangers Species (Cites).
Traffic, a conservation group which monitors trade in wildlife, believes many farmed animals that are being sold in pet shops originated in the wild.
“The issue is they’re wild-sourced, but declared as ‘captive-bred’ to get around Cites trade restrictions. This type of fraud is probably the biggest single wildlife crime issue facing the EU in terms of live animals,” said a spokesman. “We have repeatedly warned the EU about this problem.”
Advertisement
Some young tortoises imported into Ireland in the past year have a highly infectious type of herpes which can kill other tortoises.
Others have been diagnosed with metabolic bone disease (MBD), a condition that causes shells to become malformed leading to death.
Claire Green, a vet who works at the Bairbre O’Malley veterin- ary Hospital in Bray Co Wicklow and specialises in treating exotic animals, said that wild-caught tortoises also tended to carry the most parasites.
“Capture, travel and poor husbandry are really stressful, leading to immunosuppression and making them very vulnerable to viral infections such as herpes and adenoviruses,” she said. “ They are usually deficient in calcium and ultraviolet light, critical in young tortoises if MBD — and hence permanent disfigurement of the shell — is to be prevented.
“Dehydration leads to the build up of gout crystals in the joints and organs which also cause permanent damage.”
Advertisement
Maureen Wallace, who keeps 13 tortoises in her Dublin garden, urged against purchasing young Horsfield’s tortoises unless they had been bred in Ireland.
“These animals are arriving in Ireland terribly ill. Herpes can kill a tortoise in the space of a few days. Tortoises shouldn’t be sold unless they are healthy and are at least four years old. If you already have a tortoise and introduce one of these animals, you can infect your entire collection, which is soul- destroying,” she said.
Tortoises are described as legacy pets, as they outlive their owners if kept properly. They have a life expectancy of up to 120 years. Wallace said young Horsfield’s tortoises should only be kept by experienced animal keepers as they were not suited to Irish weather.
“They should not be kept in a fish tank with a heat bulb overhead. They are not suitable to be kept outdoors in gardens either as they come from arid regions. They need special heated cages which allow for ventilation. They shouldn’t really be kept as pets,” she added.
The Tortoise Trust, a conservation group that advises reptile keepers on best practice, said that the large number of young Horsfield’s tortoises arriving from farms cast serious doubt on claims the animals are captive-bred. A tortoise farm could not produce more than a couple of thousand animals a year, while there are tens of thousands on sale across the EU.
Advertisement
A female Horsfield’s tortoise lays seven eggs in a year. The trust suspect the hatchlings offered for sale are being “ranched” using wild-caught females as breeding stock.
“The import route these take can be very convoluted and murky,” a spokesman said. “There are suggestions that some are coming from ‘farms’ in Slovenia. They may be breeding them, or importing and reshipping,” a spokesman said.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, which has responsibility for enforcing Cites regulations, did not respond to our questions.