I have been offered for sale a pair of breeding tortoises born on slokakia but with cites certificates. One is not microchipped one is. Can I legally buy these and breed from them? I have also been offered a German bred cites and chipped tort. Same question is it legal to buy and breed/ HELP

Hi there. I have done some searching and hope this will answer your question: Lots of Slovenian tortoises are coming in for sale again. Personally, I think anyone wanting a tortoise should buy a UK bred one…there are 100’s for sale, 5 minutes on the net will yield countless adverts of potentially good tortoises, without the need for any imports of potentially disease riddled animals. However, I believe that you can still purchase tortoises in the U.K. with certificates issued by another E.U. member state, as long as it is a Specimen Specific Article 10 Certificate and the specimen has been micro chipped. However, it is illegal to buy or sell a tortoise with a Transaction Certificate issued by another E.U. member state from an individual other than the person named in the certificate. I frequently read that some traders in the U.K. are selling tortoises with German Transaction certificates which is illegal. The trader should have applied to DEFRA to have the certificate re-issued in their own name before offering it for sale.
I also read that in Germany they have been issuing tortoise selling certificates with a photo of the tortoise on it claiming it is a form of identification, and issuing a Specimen Specific Article 10 Certificate. It was agreed at the last EC CITES Committee meeting that photos should not be considered as a valid form of selling identification, so these certificates are transaction certificates and the seller must by law have them changed to their name before offering them for sale. If you google tortoises and the law there is a lot to read and take in!

Remember UK bred please!

Regards, David nr York

Great answer David!

regards Vivienne