Our beloved Gopher Tortoise, Harriet
As many of you know, we share our property here in Florida with Harriet, our beloved Gopher Tortoise.
She brings us so much joy everyday and we have fought hard to protect her many times since moving here in 2004.
Now some of her kin in the West, are about to be “euthanized” because a Government agency that has for years protected and housed hundreds of her relatives, has run out of money.
The facility in this story is the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, which is just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
What always strikes me as odd, in these seemingly never-ending occurrences, is that the people responsible for their well-being, never find it more humane to ask for adoptive parents to step in, to avoid killing the animals in question.
Why is it, that when large numbers of animals are no longer of value, or money gets tight, do they become a burden to be disposed of quickly, instead of trying to do the right thing for them?
The people running this and many other “animal agencies” are normally government employees, who have supposedly chosen careers in the business of and are dedicated to, the protection of wild things.
When things get dicey in our own personal lives, we don’t normally throw in the towel and walk away, do we?
No, we do what we need to do, to get through the problem and make things work.
Hopefully, some of you living close enough to this situation, can call or email, or best yet, visit this place and ask if they will allow some or all of these Endangered Desert Tortoises to be adopted?
“Euthanasia” should never be the answer.
Please feel free to reblog their story and sign their petition~
Here are places to learn more, please do what you can to help stop this:
Hundreds of endangered tortoises face eviction, euthanasia in Vegas
Federal Government Plans To Kill Hundreds Of Desert Tortoises To Save $1 Million A Year
Desert Tortoise faces threat from it’s own refuge
Walking with the Alligators 
Can you please let me know where the petition is? I must be blind, I cannot find it. Thank you so much!
Stacey, thank you.
Try this for now, am waiting to hear back from the man who wrote it.
I refuse to allow Change.org to invade/access my FB info.
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-planned-killing-of-desert-tortoises?share_id=nzJFucUjrg&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition#
Reblogged this on Vegan Lynx.
Thank you so much~
Pingback: Desert Dweller Deserted? | cindyschnackel
Just signed the petition; thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for doing this on their behalf and for caring~
Been on holiday. Catching up with blogs I need/want to stay current with, I’ve come to yours. Hopeful there would be some of your good news/story posts, I’m deflated to read about more euthanizing. We’ve become such a disposable society and not just with our animal companions. Those of us who care seem, at times, like salmon fighting to reach spawning grounds. Natural and man-made challenges become exasperating hurdles. I’m praying on this one, GW.
Dear Eric:
Thank you for sharing your, as always, accurate thinking.
I saw an elephant charging a safari vehicle on our news this morning, she flipped it.
Wish I could say that I wasn’t cheering for her, but I was!
The animals may have little choice left but to turn on us all, if they hope to survive.
I, for one, welcome their rebellion! 🙂
AMEN!
I’m amazed they have not done an adoption/fostering campaign or something. To me ‘euthanasia’ means to put someone to death when they are in pain and suffering, not just because it is unloved or it’s become unpractical.
Agree with you completely.
If we were not all the way across the country, we would make the trip and ask to take as many as they would allow,
that is IF they would allow it.
Not sure if they are even interested in this idea, for reasons they have not shared with the public.
Personally, to me, “euthanasia” is “murder by ignorance and/or intolerance.”
It should never be allowed, for any animals.
Not ever!
This is really sad. Its the sense of humans who feel they dominate all others on this planet. The ongoing badger culling in england and the horrid practice of keeping large whales in aquariums all over the world does the same. Till our consciousness changes animals will continue to suffer.
Sigh. Your points are spot-on.