Hi

I am looking to purchase a Testudo Hermann Harmann, and have done quite a bit of research, and now looking for a good breeder instead of a pet shop.

I visited my local pet shop today in Essex, who are selling these and advised they all have certificates, when i asked where they were bred, i was told Turkey. Am i right in thinking they should really be bred in the UK?

Thanks

Lisa

Hi Lisa

I'm fairly new to this myself  and I'm no expert in the law, but I believe that it's legal for a tortoise bred in Europe to be sold in the UK as long as it has the correct certification for the species. Not sure where that leaves tortoises bred in Turkey from a legal perspective. 

Generally the issue with any tortoises that are imported, regardless of whether they appear to have the correct paperwork, is that there can be no guarantees that they didn't originate from the wild or from a high density tortoise farm. So by buying from a pet shop, or other retail outlet, that imports tortoises it potentially encourages illegal and/or inhumane practice to continue.

The other aspect is that imported tortoises often bring problems with them that lead to an early demise and/or expensive vet bills. I've read a number of posts here on TPG and other tortoise sites telling of shop bought torts that died within a year or two.

My experience is that we actually got a better deal, and certainly got better advice, by buying from a genuine UK breeder. We only started looking at getting a tortoise last December, having seen Hermans on sale in a local garden centre, but ended-up buying a pair of Marginated. We paid only £5 more for the pair than we would have paid for an individual Herman from the garden centre, and have been in e-mail contact with the breeder for further advice on a couple of occasions since.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Russ