They are even dissected live for their meat. At other times they died from parasites or malnutrition or were eaten by our pet raccoon. My sisters wondered why extra pools were stacked all over the cellar and why their turtles never grew. Basically, they were disposable pets. Since then, there have been big changes in the pet-turtle industry.
Some species are no longer available, and prices for others have soared.
This is because a third of the world's 266 known species are threatened with extinction. The stunning success of the order Testudines over the past 210 million years has not been a function of fecundity. One wild adult represents an enormous genetic investment. And yet wild adult turtles are legally and routinely caught and sold on domestic and foreign markets. Now that old-world turtles are in short supply and, in some cases, protected, North American box turtles are in greater demand.