County decides to stop rescuing unwanted pet tortoises

Clark County will quit picking up and caring for unwanted pet tortoises at the end of the year.

County commissioners voted today to stop taking cast-off tortoises and paying for their care at a 220-acre conservation center, which is operated by state and federal agencies.

About 98 percent of the 1,000 tortoises delivered yearly to the center are unwanted pets, which detract from restoring wild tortoise populations, county officials say.

Although listed as threatened, tortoises can be kept as pets.

“We really don’t have the responsibility as a local government to pick up these local pets,” Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said.

Stray tortoises have pushed the county’s yearly cost for running the center to $700,000. The county also pays a firm $104,000 a year to collect the critters from owners calling a 24-hour hotline.

Federal wildlife officials today spoke against the county discontinuing the programs on Dec. 31. The county should do its part to ensure that residents don’t dump pet tortoises in the desert, where they can spread respiratory diseases to wild populations, they argued.

Also, the county is obligated to aid tortoise recovery in return for collecting development fees on 1,400 acres exempt from the federal Endangered Species Act, said Janet Bair, regional field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The county has collected $34 million under this special permit.

Marci Henson, who oversees the county’s tortoise recovery program, said the county would still comply with permit requirements even if it stops handling unwanted pets.

The county’s emphasis should be on helping wild tortoises and educating the public on responsible ownership, Henson said.

County, state and federal officials agreed to meet and discuss how to deal with the growing volume of unwanted pets.

Giunchigliani suggested outlawing new pet tortoises. Existing pets would be grandfathered in, she added.

Bair noted that this was essentially done two decades ago when the desert tortoise became protected. It didn’t stop owners from unlawfully breeding their animals, the root of the current problem, she said.

Public education and stepped-up enforcement might slow the unauthorized breeding, though it’s difficult to know by how much, Bair said.

There’s been no proven method for spaying or neutering tortoises until recently, when experiments showed some success in spaying a female tortoise, said Roy Averill-Murray, who coordinates desert tortoise recovery for Fish and Wildlife.

It wasn’t a desert tortoise but it was still a tortoise, Averill-Murray said, adding that the trial spaying will need more research before it’s applied.

“We would have to test that,” Bair said.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.