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The Tuscon, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity wants Texas, along with three other Southern states, to stop commercially harvesting freshwater turtles and sending them overseas, where they’re turned into yummy shellicious snackems. The center even sent the state an “emergency petition” today, in hopes of getting our homegrown turtles off foreign dinner tables.
Turns out, though, the CBD’s got more than just the well-being of the Texas turtle on its mind: Says its media release today, our chelonians that get “sold as food are often contaminated with mercury, PCBs, and pesticides,” which apparently makes them less delicious. Also, from the release, this one nugget: “Over a quarter million wild-caught adult turtles captured in Texas were exported from Dallas Fort Worth Airport to Asia for human consumption from 2002 to 2005.” Does Carmine Sabatini have anything to do with this? –Robert Wilonsky
