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AkitaMutt — I thought you were gone..
Published: 2012-08-24 19:06:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 222; Favourites: 5; Downloads: 9
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Description
I am far from a photographer but I often find a good use for my Olympus SP-800UZ. It features an awesome zoom distance & allows you to catch some shots of animals that wouldn't be possible if you had to approach them.Anyways, I found this adorable guy in the road in front of our house today & took him from there & into our yard. After about 40 minutes, he started to emerge. I took this as he started to "open" up.
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Comments: 10
Gosh, this is so cute! <3 I don't really see many box turtle photos around dA, which is a shame, since boxies deserve more love than they get ;U; I actually own one, and I've see them wild by my vacation house, but they all box up whenever I even come close. The one that I own didn't come from the wild though, she was born and raised in a nature center, and we only took her because they had no room left for her. I don't support taking pets from out of the wild.
Those red eyes omg <333
Nice job!
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Thank you so much! Your comment is super humbling. I'm glad you like the shot. I saw him and just knew I had to run inside and grab my camera to get a few pictures of him. I love taking pictures of wild animals though we don't see many out here.
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You're so welcome! And me neither, the city where I live has no wildlife whatsoever ;n; I love nature photography as well^^
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Ah yes, same out here. All we have are the usual squirrels & song birds.
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OH MY GAWD BOX TURTLE! I like turtles, lololol. Cutie. Don't keep them as pets though please, they're protected species, and really really super wash everyone's hands that touched him with antibacterial soap, they're little factories for salmonella. (No seriously, in this state turtles & tortoises are banned from being sold in pet stores because they're considered a public health risk.)
But omg I love turtles, this totally brightened up my day first thing in the morning.
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(old comment but)
Actually, I've kept turtles all my life. I've never gotten sick. I've probably handled hundreds of turtles. I have never gotten sick, so this "salmonella factory" stuff is.. Bullshit. There's little to no reason why they shouldn't be kept as pets, besides specific species being endangered.
Just because something has a small risk of somehow carrying a disease doesn't make it a "public health risk". MANY animals can spread salmonella, but we don't see them as "public healthy risks".
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No problem, I'm always game to talk about turtles 
I've had 4 box turtles and a pair of red-eared sliders over the years, but they were all illegally kept, they are banned in my state of New Jersey, ostensibly for being salmonella carriers. You can't even buy turtle FOOD in the pet stores here, I always had to drive out of state across the border into Pennsylvania to stock up on food & supplements, similar to how ferrets are banned & illegal to own in the state of California.
While they might not be total disease factories, being that AkitaMutt has very small children/toddlers in her household and kids are like magnets to box turtles, I still can't stress enough to make sure children wash their hands after handling them, they aren't dangerous animals but care should be taken not to go sticking your fingers in your mouth after handling them as toddlers are apt to always do.
I don't entirely disagree with you--I believe myself that the reason NJ bans them is because its easier to enforce a blanket ban and make it sound dire than to investigate the individual provenance of legal/permitted versus illegal & wild caught turtles for each case they encounter--natural, endemic salmonella living on their skin is the official reason, and in the context of household with small kids, it remains A Thing to take precautions against that a parent unfamiliar with turtles might not have been aware of.
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He's cute, right? Oh, no, I don't do non-furries as pets- with the exception of fish.
Glad you enjoyed it! C:
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