Hi

Despite many UK Breeders not being able to find good homes for the tortoises they breed, there are still a large number of tortoises that are still being imported into the UK, which is of great concern to us. Many arrive here with illnesses and diseases, due to cross-infection through keeping 100’s of tortoises together prior to shipment and during their transportation. The large number of young tortoises sold by dealers with parasitic infestations, is not natural for “captive bred” tortoises. Many of these tortoises are clearly far older than their licenses suggest?

WHY?

Only a few weeks ago I was speaking to a lady here who had a friend order two tortoises from a certain well known dealer in Essex. Both arrived via a courier DEAD!

In order to offer an alternative to purchasing tortoises from dealers/pet shops etc, we set up a UK Breeders list, which we are now starting to expand (all the breeders on the list are verified by us). This is largely due to the new page we have set up on our website where our verified breeders can advertise their tortoises for sale. Although the page is doing quite well in the Google ratings, we really need to push it further up the ratings; above the dealer’s links and other general adverts.

We are asking all members to PLEASE make occasional/daily searches on Google e.g. “Tortoise For Sale” and to click the Tortoise Protection Group link :-

http://www.tortoise-protection-group.org.uk/site/176.asp?thissection=38

– this will help with the ratings. I believe it is currently on page 2.

To help the ratings we have created a new Facebook Group:-

http://www.facebook.com/groups/225798307535735/

Please feel free to join and invite your friends too.

Many Thanks for taking your time to read this post.

I hope you and your shelled friends are well – sunny here the last two days….Thankfully:-)

Kindest Regards

Darren