Bad news for avid turtle hunters in Ontario, Canada — you can no longer kill Snapping Turtles in the province whether it is hunting season or not. Prior to recent events, hunters could kill up to two of the turtles per day but that was the hard cap on turtle murder. Now, the season has been completely closed down due to the sensitive nature of the turtle population. That leaves Saskatchewan as the only province in America’s neighbor to the North where Snapping Turtles are still at risk of greedy hunters wanting them for their shells or skin or…meat maybe? Who knows.
A government statement explained the reasoning behind the ban, saying,
“Based on public feedback, there was significant opposition to maintaining any open season for snapping turtles. Snapping Turtle is a long-lived species that reproduces slowly and is subject to other significant stressors such as road mortality. The Ministry has closed the Snapping Turtle season to help maintain populations of this species into the future.”
The Snapping Turtle isn’t officially a threatened or endangered animal yet, but it is under “special concern” and their status will hopefully stay that way or even improve now that these regulations are in place. Chasing after Snapping Turtles doesn’t even sound that fun anyway, seeing as any members of the species found on land could attack out of self defense and potentially take off a finger or two.
(via Vice)
