San Diego Water Turtle Rescue

Water Turtle Rescues

Thank you for contacting the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society about water turtles.

Read the following to better understand our situation, and exactly how we can help you.

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IMPORTANT:

* * * Never just release a turtle! This act is illegal in the State of California! * * *

Except for the endangered Western Pond Turtle, water turtles are not native to California

and they are an invasive species that causes serious harm to our State's environment.

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OUR CAPACITY:

While we continue to have excellent capacity to rescue tortoises and land turtles, we are

experiencing difficulties in handling the large number of requests we get about water turtles.

We are being asked to take in more than 100 every month!

This is a major challenge we continually face. Fortunately, we still have a few foster homes

now setup that can handle this large number of incoming turtles. These are volunteer homes

with substantial outdoor storage ponds where we can keep hundreds of healthy water turtles

while searching for suitable new homes. Any donation you can give towards the care and

maintenance of these hundreds of turtles waiting for homes would be greatly appreciated.

(There is a "Donate" button at the top of this page for contributing online via PayPal.)

I know it might be a little inconvenient, but in order to efficiently handle the intake of so many

found and relinquished aquatic turtles, we must strictly follow this intake process:

Deliver your water turtles directly to Mr. Kim Thomas (Clairemont Mesa area of San Diego.)

You may drop off turtles on either Wednesdays 3:00p–5:00p or Saturdays 12:00p–5:00p. The

relinquishment of your turtle(s) must be made to SDTTS as final and irreversible.

Call first for Kim's address and to confirm your planned arrival time: (760) 504-6587.

Kim is a very active volunteer and he has a very busy calendar. If he cannot answer, please

leave your voicemail at his number and he will return your call as soon as he has some open

time in his schedule.

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PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS AND NEIGHBORS TO PLEASE NOT SUPPORT THE

WATER TURTLE TRADE BY PURCHASING THEM AS PETS! THEY ARE AN INVASIVE, NON-NATIVE

SPECIES. THERE ARE THOUSANDS AVAILABLE AND WAITING FOR ADOPTION, AND

TENS-OF-THOUSANDS MORE THAT ARE ALREADY DISRUPTING MANY OF CALIFORNIA'S

FRAGILE ECO-SYSTEMS. (MANY STATES AND COUNTRIES HAVE ALREADY OUTLAWED THEM.)

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The Society is an all-volunteer organization, with over 400 members. We are an IRS registered 501(c)3

non-profit organization, and have been faithfully doing turtle and tortoise rescues/adoptions since 1970.