Three Lakeland men charged with harvesting and selling wild turtles

Posted on July 18, 2014

Three Lakeland men and an Okeechobee freshwater turtle farmer were caught illegally harvesting, selling and buying wild-caught freshwater turtles as a result of a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigation.

“Turtles are a popular, commercially available food item throughout much of the world and, as a result, overharvest has occurred in many countries,” said the FWC’s Lt. George Wilson, who led the effort. “To prevent overharvest here, the FWC proactively banned commercial harvest of all native wild turtles in 2009,” Wilson said.

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