As many of you are aware Florida Fish and  Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), has developed a new rule and set of corresponding guidelines for the private and commercial keeping and trade of red eared sliders in our state.

The rule's development included substantial input from our industry; and goes a long way towards solving the problem of this turtle, which is exotic to our state, from impacting Florida's environment - and giving our industry negative attention.   

The following summary of the rule comes from Scott Hardin, Exotic Species Coordinator for FWC . Scott's worked hard to minimize the rule's impacts on pet owners and on our industry. His contact info for questions follows. 

1) As of July 1, 2007, red-eared sliders become a conditional species.
(2) Anyone with a red-eared slider as of July 1, 2007, may keep that turtle without a permit. No one may have a red-eared slider less than 4 inches after July 1, 2008, except color morphs - see (6).

(3) From July 1, 2007, forward, no one will be allowed to acquire a red-eared slider as a pet. (We do not issue permits for personal possession of conditional species).

(4) From July 1, 2007, forward, permits to possess red-eared sliders will be issued only to researchers, legitimate exhibitors, and dealers who will be shipping out of state. These no-cost permits will be issued by my office. This will be a very small group of permit holders.

(5) Individuals/businesses with an Aquaculture Certificate of Registration are not required to get a conditional species permit.

(6) The unusual color morphs are exempt from the permit requirements, i.e., an individual may purchase a pastel or albino, without a permit. It will be up to our Law Enforcement officers to verify that the turtle is a legitimate color morph.

Feel free to call with questions.

Scott Hardin
Exotic Species Coordinator
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
(850)488-4068
(850)251-2563 CELL
(850)413-0381 FAX

Answers to the most frequently asked questions that I am asked are:

  Retail stores, vendors at shows and retailers of any kind, cannot sell    red ears to any retail customer in Florida as of July 1st, 2007.

  Red ears purchased from out of state cannot become pets in Florida.

 If you have an Aquaculture certificate you don't need a permit. If you are a dealer/transhipper, you can get a permit to import, as described in Scott's #4.  All red ears purchased under this permit must be sold out of state - or to another permitted dealer who will be shipping them out of state.

 Anyone keeping red ears in an outdoor facility must follow the guidelines for keeping conditional aquatic turtle species, specifically:

 "Outdoor facilities must have a permanent containment barrier at least six inches below ground level to prevent escape by digging or erosion. All eggs must be removed daily."   

Best Management Practices for Aquaculture (BMPs) require that waste water discharges terminate inside the facility and all containment barriers.

 Albinos, true pastels and other more valuable, distinctly different color morphs can be retailed in Florida - good record keeping of all transactions in and out will be helpful when Law Enforcement officers are verifying their legitimacy. "Pretty normals" will not be considered to be unusual color morphs.

 Retail customers prior to July 1st, 2007 would be prudent to save their sales receipts.

As an industry, we have worked together with FWC to minimize it's impact on us all.  We now need to work to get the word out to everyone in and out of our state who may be affected by the rule.

Please forward this information to anyone in your contact list who can help spread it out to those who may need it...

Please feel free to contact me or Scott with any questions that you may have.

Sincerely,

 Marcus Cantos