Ask A Scientist© Veterinary Topics Archive

 
name JAMES
status other
grade other
location OK

Question - This Morning an employee came into work with a small
turtle. This turtle was bright orange, black and green in color. The
turtle is approx 2 wide. As a kid me and my brothers always
played with these turtles. Anyhow. She said that her daycare went crazy when
this turtle was brought into the daycare as a show and tell item. They told
her to never bring back a turtle, cause they are deadly to
children. Could you please give me tell me some info on these deadly
little cute lovable turtles. Jim.
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Okay, this is a long story, but I'll make it short. Basically, a number of 
years ago, I think in the 70s ish, there were a bunch of children that came 
down with a fairly serious illness (some I think did die) that was linked to 
small turtles. The issue turned out to not be the turtles, but rather the 
small children putting the turtles in their mouths.
If we could stick big turtles in our mouths, we would have the same problem. 
I'm really not lieing on this - crazy story, but true. What ended up 
happening was the sale of these small turtles was legally banned because of 
all these cases of illness. So those people freaking out because of the 
turtle is really not justified, it's just important that you wash your hands 
after handling any animal, especially reptiles, and that if there is a small 
child around,
you make sure they wash their hands and that they DON'T PUT REPTILES IN 
THEIR MOUTHS!!!

It's a shame turtles have gotten such a bad wrap from the situation, and 
it's even more a shame that people believe in the sort of "urban myths" that 
go flying around. Hopefully you can help relieve their fears.

Best wishes

Susannah Sample
BSBME
Vet Student
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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