Tortoises Living In Filth

[thaibeachlovers]

Moved to wife's house in a village. The family keep 3 large tortoises in a very small enclosure which isn't nice. Given the Thai attitude to animals, is there anyway I can convince them to give the tortoises more space. Can't demand anything, as just arrived.

If there is a way to change their ( the family ) attitude, is there anything I should be aware of, as in poisonous plants?

Not really interested in raising them myself, but distressed at their living conditions.

Thanks for any help.

[surayu]

I would act on this way. First of all do NOT let them understand that your concern is towards the wellbeing of the little pets, otherways people will see that as your "weakness" and try to squize out of you as much as they can, perhaps by involving new pets in the game that otherways wouldn't have been affected, so be carefull there.

Just pretend you want to make them a present by paying for a new larger and much more beautifull turtle's home, so you will be all happy, if your wife is a "reasonable" person it would be much better if she can do all the talkings, good luck with it.

[cmsally]

Tell them you had a dream and that tortoises would provide winning lottery number if they got a new house!!

[Cuban]

First of all do NOT let them understand that your concern is towards the wellbeing of the little pets, otherways people will see that as your "weakness"...

Your concern should be for the well being of the family and the family household, suggest that you have heard about the affect of karma of the housing for the animals influencing the good luck for the family house. So by doing a little to make the animals better they will bring about a big change for the family.

As a starter you might do some internet digging about tortoises in Buddhist culture to pad out or illustrate your karma story.

I would tackle it by getting the kids involved in the project, with some strong guidance you can get them to draw a picture of the ideal housing. Show them some pictures from the internet. I have no idea if they dig holes so you might need to consider their potential for escape or ingress of predators(?) Then with family involvement build a new enclosure. Consider what the sun exposure issues are, access to water, food etc. If the animals have been in bad housing you might need to address any health issues. I would bet that the local vet has limited experience so your own research is probably better, consider shell rot? I would guess that if the animals look nice people would better relate to them, I understand you can polish the shells with linseed oil.

Are the tortoises kept as pets or just temporary for releasing like the traditional turtle releasing activity performed on birthdays etc. If released they are most likely to re-captured for onward release, you can see a pattern developing.

The other thought that occurs to me - if they are not being held captive for future release nor as family pets, are they being bred for their shells or other body parts? Either food or Chinese Traditional Medicine.

Serving Suggestion?

[teddy_bare]

Tell them you had a dream and that tortoises would provide winning lottery number if they got a new house!!

And we have a winner!

Tell them if their shells are clean you can see the lucky numbers on them.

They do release them for good luck. Not sure why. I was in a temple in Bangkok and my wife bought a frog, turtle and some fish, which I thought was dinner. Then we went down to the klong and they were released with a few words, a wai and the lighting of a couple of josh sticks.

Not sure if it worked as the police pulled us over on the way home.

Luckily western technology saved us the fine when I pointed at my in car video recorder and asked if he wanted to review me not breaking the law.

[thaibeachlovers]

First of all do NOT let them understand that your concern is towards the wellbeing of the little pets, otherways people will see that as your "weakness"...

Your concern should be for the well being of the family and the family household, suggest that you have heard about the affect of karma of the housing for the animals influencing the good luck for the family house. So by doing a little to make the animals better they will bring about a big change for the family.

As a starter you might do some internet digging about tortoises in Buddhist culture to pad out or illustrate your karma story.

I would tackle it by getting the kids involved in the project, with some strong guidance you can get them to draw a picture of the ideal housing. Show them some pictures from the internet. I have no idea if they dig holes so you might need to consider their potential for escape or ingress of predators(?) Then with family involvement build a new enclosure. Consider what the sun exposure issues are, access to water, food etc. If the animals have been in bad housing you might need to address any health issues. I would bet that the local vet has limited experience so your own research is probably better, consider shell rot? I would guess that if the animals look nice people would better relate to them, I understand you can polish the shells with linseed oil.

Are the tortoises kept as pets or just temporary for releasing like the traditional turtle releasing activity performed on birthdays etc. If released they are most likely to re-captured for onward release, you can see a pattern developing.

The other thought that occurs to me - if they are not being held captive for future release nor as family pets, are they being bred for their shells or other body parts? Either food or Chinese Traditional Medicine.

Serving Suggestion?

My wife says for food.

However, I think they could still be kept in better conditions while waiting.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

[thaibeachlovers]

Update.

In the end it was no problem. Discussed it with my wife and she said go ahead.

Purchased some wire netting from a local general building store and enclosed an area of the land, burying it a third in the ground, so it needs minimal support. Unfortunately the area next to the hovel is vege garden, so can't have the enclosure next to it. So, need to take them there and back, which won't happen once I'm gone.

Yesterday was the big day. 3 tortoises placed in the enclosure. All 3 stayed in the shell for 10 minutes, then 1 made a bid to find an escape route, 1 proceeded to eat as much grass as possible and the other stayed put.

[bina]

u can get them to walk all the way back, if u put them out every day - have them walk to the enclusre at the same time and have them 'come home' to a smaller enclosure in the evening with some food as prize, they willl come on their own with some prodding and guidance... at petting zoo we used to release the large tortoises and at end of day, they automatically would walk back to enclosure for their evening hay/turtle food... we would have to sort of guide them along but mostly they wenton their own since they all weighed a lot (20 kilos +-)...

[manarak]

So... the new enclosure can hold 4 times more turtles than before, right?

[EPattaya]

You could say a friend of yours is looking to buy some with good profits. We have a downstairs pond that they may like.

[thaibeachlovers]

Well, the story didn't end there. The wire enclosure was a bust, as it was located in an area that floods when it rains.

Anyway, Not going to say what happened, but my wife "owed me one" and I used it to negotiate that she would move the vegetables elsewhere and we would build an enclosure next to the hovel.

So a few days digging trenches for foundations and laying of concrete blocks later, we now have a nice enclosure for the tortoises to venture into and out of as they please. Herself carried out the wall demolition to allow them to experience freedom!

Today, one even went out on it's own to eat the plants, but the other two just stayed motionless in the hovel. Either they are so conditioned to being locked up they have no interest in actually walking anywhere, or it was too dam_n hot to go outside.

Sadly, we are about to move on, so I'll not get to see if they actually start to go outside a lot.

Whatever, I did my bit for animal rights, so I can leave with a clear concience, haha.

[thaibeachlovers]

You could say a friend of yours is looking to buy some with good profits. We have a downstairs pond that they may like.

Sorry, missed your post before.

Wouldn't have worked anyway, as they are destined to be dinner.

I definitely don't want to be around for that!

[manarak]

You could say a friend of yours is looking to buy some with good profits. We have a downstairs pond that they may like.

Sorry, missed your post before.

Wouldn't have worked anyway, as they are destined to be dinner.

I definitely don't want to be around for that!

Are you a vegetarian?

[thaibeachlovers]

You could say a friend of yours is looking to buy some with good profits. We have a downstairs pond that they may like.

Sorry, missed your post before.

Wouldn't have worked anyway, as they are destined to be dinner.

I definitely don't want to be around for that!

Are you a vegetarian?

No, but I don't want to eat any animal that I've known.

I prefer my meat as not recognisably animal.

Hypocritical yes, but I've killed enough animals not to want to do it anymore.

[thaibeachlovers]

Couple months since I've seen them, and able to report that the new enclosure seems to be a success.

Apparently 2 of them stay outside all the time, and 1 stays inside all the time.

All the vegetation has been eaten, so it's just bare earth, but at least they have some space and are out in the air if they want to be.

So, they're not living in filth anymore, I'm happy, and the effort was worth it.

[seekingfriends]

i am very pleased to hear about those tortoises. every time we go out to eat. i bring back a doggy bag bag from the restaurant .and leave it outside the house for the local stray dogs .and fill up a bowl of water .the family also buys a 20 kg bag of dog food from tesco and feed the local strayes. its not much but its something . james hat yai