Posted at 10:18 a.m. EST Friday, December 28, 2001

Endangered turtles confiscated in China arrive in Miami

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MIAMI -- (AP) -- Forty crates containing hundreds of threatened or endangered Asian turtles arrived aboard a United Airlines flight late Thursday, the first of three shipments of nearly 7,000 turtles that were confiscated two weeks ago in Hong Kong.

Idy Wong, a spokeswoman for Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden in Hong Kong, said 227 turtles arrived aboard a flight from San Francisco. Another shipment of 222 turtles is expected Friday.

``The species we're working with, under the best of circumstances, have heavy mortality so we're not sure how things are going to look tomorrow morning,'' said Barbara Bonner, the head veterinarian for the turtle rescue operation.

The animals will be taken to Alapattah Flats Turtle Preserve in Port St. Lucie for treatment and cataloging. The Turtle Survival Alliance, an animal rights group formed last year, will then find them homes in zoos and private turtle facilities.

The seized shipment, worth $3.2 million, was to be part of China's food trade but was deemed illegal because about 90 percent of the animals in the crates were ranked as critical, endangered or vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.

The alliance arranged for the reptiles to be transported for free aboard United Airlines flights. Without the alliance's help, the turtles likely would have been destroyed because they are too sick to be released into the wild and the Hong Kong facility they were being held at lacks enough long-term space to house them.

Eating turtles is common in Asia. But the trade is depleting the wild populations as several tons of turtles are consumed daily, biologists said.

China consumed nearly all of its own turtles years ago but began importing them from Vietnam, Bangladesh and other countries in 1989 when the Chinese currency became convertible, according to biologists.

The shipment of improperly and inhumanely packed turtles earlier this month was the largest seizure of live turtles in Hong Kong.

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On the Net: Conservation International: http://www.conservation.org

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001