From the Susquehannock Wildlife Society:
(Bel Air, MD) – – In a few days, thousands of people will gather in downtown Bel Air to enjoy the town’s annual Fourth of July festivities. But this Independence Day, the Susquehannock Wildlife Society is urging the public to reconsider participating in two of those events, as the organization calls for the Bel Air Independence Day Committee and Bel Air Kiwanis to end their traditional Turtle Derby and Frog Jumping contests.
These races, while part of the local celebration for decades, appear fun for the reptiles and amphibians involved, but the sad truth is that they’re likely running for their lives. Disease and inadvertent mistreatment of the animals have taken their toll on many of the species involved and threaten the future of local wildlife. Together, let’s help the Bel Air Kiwanis make this year’s Turtle Derby and Frog Jumping Contest the best and the last of its kind.
Deadly diseases such as Ranavirus are easily transmitted when animals come in contact with one another, especially during stressful situations. These frogs and turtles “race” because they are frightened and their natural instinct tells them to find a place to hide from potential predators. Creating stressful situations for these animals for our amusement is both dangerous and cruel.
Most of the animals used for these races are taken from the wild. Some are rare and declining species that are never returned, while others are not released into the same areas they were found. Reptiles and amphibians are also known to carry a variety of diseases and bacteria that can create a high potential for illness in humans coming in contact with them. In Maryland, it is illegal to possess certain wild species or to possess more than a certain quantity of other species. It is also illegal to release a wild animal that has been kept in captivity if it has been in contact with any other reptiles or amphibians.
The Susquehannock Wildlife Society’s efforts to replace these races with family-friendly, wildlife-themed events were rejected by the Bel Air Independence Day Committee, which decided to proceed despite the warnings of state biologists, veterinarians, wildlife rehabilitors, and other professionals. Nevertheless, the organization remains eager to offer its support and assistance to any group interested in replacing the wildlife events.
The Susquehannock Wildlife Society urges Bel Air Kiwanis, the sponsor of this year’s races, to announce this week that the Turtle Derby and Frog Jumping contests will not be returning in 2014, and to place Bel Air on the leading edge of a positive environmental and ethical trend that is spreading across the country.
Happy Independence Day and celebrate safely; all creatures great and small.
For more information about this or other local wildlife issues, contact the Susquehannock Wildlife Society at 443-333-WILD (-9453) or visit our web site at http://www.suskywildlife.org.
hopefully someone ‘running’ the turtle derby’s will urge everyone to return the turtles to where they were picked up…
this event has evolved into a travesty for turtles…
my suggestion would be a ‘kid brother derby’…where anyone with a kid brother, puts them in a large pillow, in the center of a large ring, and the winner is the first to reach the outer edge…
that would be my suggestion…
only sayin’
birdman
Maybe There Could Be Someone From The Wildlife Group There At The Derby/Races To “Collect” The Wildlife At The End And Return Them To The Wild? I Wish The Participants Would Do It Themselves But Maybe With The Group Offering Release Assistance The Wild Life Would Stand A Better Chance Of Return? Could VolunteersOffer To Assist The Group? Maybe A Boy Scout Pack Could Help? Otherwise I Personally Say End The Races/Contests. Sorry But It’s The Right Thing To Do.
That would be a great idea. Unfortunately, the damage is mostly done when put in contact with the other turtles. In fact, by LAW you aren’t supposed to have that many turtles in one locations without a permit. Which, the committee does NOT have. Why they haven’t been fined..beyond me. Probably politics within the system. Maybe just don’t want to bother with all that paperwork. Who knows.
For years I have watched these July 4th activities with delight & amusement. After years of collecting information & reflection I agree with the Wildlife Society.
What lesson are we teaching young children? Have fun at the
expense of wildlife. We are better than that.
Collecting wildlife throwing it into a pit and making it run in fear so we can clap and squeal in delight is sick. Kids are getting a sick twisted lesson about respect for wildlife and our responsibility to do no harm. End it – race hamsters or something instead…
Ironically, the hamster races were cancelled this year.
Maybe starting a petition to send to them will show the support to end these races. I don’t think people really think or know the impact this has on these creatures. Thank you for enlightening us!
Petition not a bad idea – at minimum just contact your council member or whoever puts this activity together. This one is pretty easy – don’t know who would support scaring the crap out of wildlife so they run faster. Put in that perspective it is truly a repulsive activity.
Pretty sure a large majority of folks are all for ending this type of “entertainment”. There are multitudes of activities children and family can share at a festive fair event. And setting up a display with wildlife (hawks, lizards, etc. that are always around during the farm fair) along with educational posters about RESPECT and caution around wildlife would go a long way towards helping to promote the proper attitude for our next generations of Harford Countians.
If turtles and frogs were banned, this event would have never happened.
The Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter to the Kiwanis club of Bel Air. They are the ones who run this derby.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/turtle-derby-06-28-2013.html
If the Center for Biological Diversity litigation machine is against this, I am now strongly in favor of it. Thanks for the info.
If those of you are truly concerned for these animals and are repulsed by the act and message it sends to our kids, then maybe you should think before you bite into that steak, hamburger or chicken wing. The industrialization of growing and slaughtering animals for our consumption is far worse for the animals we eat and for the environment we eat than for the frogs and turtles that you are so willing to protect.
People will eat meat and a good steak is a great pleasure in life…there are humane sources for food; certainly if you buy local there’s a very good chance the animal was treated well. We can agree that there are some horror stories from the meat factories but that in no way equates to exposing woodland creatures to gratuitous cruelty and fear for our entertainment.
This is a totally different subject. We are talking about a small town event where we can make an actual change. I will not be taking any kids to the events this year and to any in the future unless it changes. This isn’t about how perdue kills chickens. It’s how people in our own town are doing damage to our wildlife. How the crud do you not support this and complain about the harm in other animals? Is one better than the other? Of course not. Don’t be one of those that picks and chooses which animal is worth fighting for. You are either all in or you are a phony.
swamp—-ever kill a mosquito or spider or a tick? just curious. Are you in or are you a phony?
I’ll have an extra burger for you tonight. Next time, preach your message on a story that is relevant to your cause.
I hear turtle soup is good too.
Turtles in the wild are declining; the amount of quality and safe activities for children are numerous. Times are changing as knowledge comes into place and protection needs to be put into place for many species of wildlife. Turtle derbies and similar contests all over the US are being eliminated due to health concerns, wildlife concerns, spread of disease and parasites and also the event is cruel to the animals. It is so stressful for the turtles involved that gravid female turtles have laid eggs during the process. A lay person would think that is funny and maybe a natural thing but it is not. Turtles do not lay eggs that way – the fear and stress caused that to occur which could result in death to the female and certain death to the embryo in the egg. What person would want to be a part of that? There are better fun things for children to do than to be involved with an event that all have learned is now harmful in many ways. I would never consider allowing my children or grandchildren to take part in such an event. They have learned and will learn to respect native wildlife.
Right on Pa Gal.
Do turtles poop in the wild? Nasty animals that leave their dump on the ground, probably got rabies
you are the worst expert. ever.
Sounds like we should have hippy races instead. Do they run?
No, but they poop in the wild.
“Fourth of July”
How about we call it Independence Day first? Nah, lets get all worked up about toads and turtles first.
You sound like a disgruntled Will Smith fan. I think that animals lives count more than how you word a holiday. Get real. LoLZ
I can’t wait until the Harford County Farm Fair starts for the “Stop the pig races” wingnuts.
Why would the farm fair have a protest about one of it’s own events? If you can’t understand the difference between a farm raised pig being raced and a wild animal being raced…..why bother, you are too far gone.
Wow. I can’t believe how much ignorance is out there. You are saying that it should be ok to take a turtle out of it’s habitat and “race” it and maybe put it back where it was found, maybe not but only after exposing that turtle to all of the other turtles and possibly spreading or contracting a deadly disease? Just so people can be entertained? It does not mean that you are a hippy if you give a crap about animals/environmental issues. It means that you are above those who feel those things are unimportant or irrelevant. Only people at the bottom of the barrel with a holier than thou attitude don’t give a crap about what they do that impacts our world and I feel sorry for you. It must be so great to be a human being that can snap their fingers and destroy or conserve what they want and not feel it matters in the long run. Giving everything else little to no choice in the matter. I would rather save a turtle than most humans on any given day because of the ignorance displayed here. I say this with a double cheeseburger in my fist and flowers in my hair.
**ps. grammar, ongoing sentences, commas in the wrong place. Pardon me.
Awesome, another bandwagon for me.to jump on and look good. Free Willy.
The organizers admit that it’s not uncommon for the frogs to end up being injured and they have no way of knowing if the turtles are properly hydrated or fed, how long they’ve been kept in a box…nor if they’re ever returned to where they were found. It may seem comical to some (apparently) but with turtle populations rapidly waning taking an animal from the wild, starving and dehydrating it, throwing it in a box for some number of hours or days, then if that’s no bad enough scaring the crap out of it so that it crawls faster is cruelty personified. We can do much better than this.
No doubt, someone should start conservation right now in buying the property Bel Air wal mart plans to build, and the 108 acres of ‘proposed’ residential area filled with houses.
Oh wait, nobody’s kids will see bulldozers running over Frogs and turtles so it won’t matter anyway.
Grenouilles anyone? Excellent with butter, garlic and a little fresh parsley.
the Mid Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society (MATTS) strongly opposes these turtle derbies, for reasons outlined above.
http://www.midatlanticturtles.org/
PLEASE help stop these derbies. If You are ‘into turtles”, please join MATTS ! 🙂
The Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the responsible herpetoculture of turtles and tortoises, promoting and supporting the study of chelonian natural history and conserving Mid-Atlantic chelonian species and habitat.
Gregory S Pokrywka MD, Co-Founder, President emeritus, and current Board Member.
The Susquehannock Wildlife Society has released a video calling for an end to the Independence Day frog and turtle events.
http://youtu.be/_gosJf_9SHY
How’d canceling that event work out? Hahaha.
Go scour the Earth for another Internet message board to troll and push your agenda.
I started and literally own this website; so I’m not going anywhere.
But the wildlife races are.
They were never going to be canceled this year; that much was certain when we decided to play nice even in the face of blatant procrastination tactics by Committee president Don Stewart.
Science and ethics are against you, so it’s only a matter of time.
In the meantime, I’d suggest you start familiarizing yourself with the nuanced rules of horseshoes.
Great Job Brian and The Susquehannock Wildlife Society !
i’m appalled by the ignorance here (See “Herp Twerp” above and others….). Hopefully we will get this Derby out of business for next year (tho their excuse for this year “its too late to stop it…” was rather pathetic…)
Yeah, but you keep on coming back to read it, don’t ya?
Perhaps Maryland should consider investing more in its educational system. I was totally unaware of the low level of environmental education that must exist in their school system. While people have the right to express their opinions, turtles have the right to live of their 40-75 year lives. The fact that these races are labeled as a longstanding tradition is clear, but so was commercial whaling, public hangings, virgin sacrifice, and segregation. Some traditions outlive their usefulness. We should all thank the Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society and the other groups who have brought this issue to the public’s attention. I have faith that the sponsors of these turtle races will be able to modify them in ways that will remove the current stress on the wild populations of our native turtles (and frogs), and cut back the risk for the spread of disease to people and our native wildlife.
Just go away. Isnt there an animal that is actually endangered you could be “saving”? Is this entire county just wingnuts who came here from somewhere else to impose their mistaken beliefs on the rest of us?
Please do your homework…the eastern box turtle populations have plummeted in the past couple decades. We humans do have the ability see cause and effect and temper our activities as a result.
test
Horsehoes now?