You're in > TPG Members Forum > Tortoise Protection Group Forum > Dead Tortoise from

Dead Tortoise from
Posted: 23/10/2015 by Tom

Serena & I have kept in touch. See her post of 18/9/15 under the heading to the left.

Whilst she now has a refund from "The Tortoise Centre" otherwise known as Wilton Pets / Zoological International, this does not compensate for the trauma or an expensive post mortem.

The above is not an isolated case.

Good pet shops do not sell pets, but have a list of specialist breeders.

Tom

Re: Dead Tortoise from
Posted: 02/11/2015 by serena86

Tom is right.. unfortunately the refund cannot pay back for the hard time I had after losing my little Alan.

We only had him for a few weeks and I went back home onw day from work and he was dead. The post mortem from the vet confirmed that he was malnourished and hadn't been fed the right food and right supplemenets, probably bread with lots of other tortoises, so the access to food was limited.
I ordered Alan online and got it couriered home. Despite being only 30 minutes from the shop, our home was the last one on the list so he stayed in the back of a van for almost 2 days...
After he died we went to see the actual shop and the way they keep the tortoises is quite bad and their advice on the care even worse.

If anyone here is thinking about getting a tortoise, please do your research first and by all means stay away from pet shops.
Pet shops want to make money, selling you animals which you cannot be sure are born and bread in the UK and been kept in good conditions. Stay away also from anyone who offers to courier your tortoise! So much stress for them, poor things.
Do contact a trusted breeder, talk to them first and if in doubt, post on this forum for help.

If instead you had any bad experience with any pet shop or breeder, please report it to Tim. Only if people report their bad experience and stop buying from them, something can be done, so report it! 
You won't be judged, and sharing your experience might save a little tortoise and another owner lots of pain.

Serena

 

web designer: www.beework.net