The Dangers of Pet Turtles
July 8, 2007 by Kerri Aldrich
Filed under News and Links about Children's Things
I had no idea that owning a little turtle could cause illness and possibly death! Did you? Hsien shared this article sharing the possible dangers to families owning small pet turtles, especially those with small children in the home.
From medpageToday:
Turtles, especially those with shells under four inches, are still causing illness — and death — more than 30 years after their sale was banned in the U.S., the CDC warned. In March, a three-week-old girl in Florida died of an infection of Salmonella pomona two months after her family had been given a small turtle, the agency said in a case report. Salmonella isolated from the turtle was indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to the strain that killed the girl, according to the July 6 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Okay, I honestly didn’t even know that they were banned from sale! I’m glad I read this. There’s no telling how many reptiles my little guys will be bringing into our house, and now I know of at least one more thing to be careful of. I think we’ll try to stick to the plush, clean, inanimate pets for a good long while!
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] Kerri Aldrich wrote an interesting post today on The Dangers of Pet TurtlesHere’s a quick excerptI had no idea that owning a little turtle could cause illness and possibly death! Did you? Hsien shared this article sharing the possible dangers to families owning small pet turtles, especially those with small children in the home. … [...]