Pet Life Magazine, New Zealand Pet Life Magazine Issue 5 Summer 2017 | Page 22

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Donna Moot takes the time, while hosing off a turtle tank, to tell Pet Life about her turtle
rescue operation in Christchurch.
When I was about 17 I went to Singa-
pore and everywhere I went there were
turtles. I thought they were so cool,
they were in the parks and markets;
they were everywhere. When I was
about 24, turtles started popping up in
the pet trade in New Zealand.
I got a couple of turtles, both males.
One of them is still alive, in his 30s now.
The other I lost in a pond. He got pneu-
monia, which was really sad. He would
follow me around and try and climb up
my leg, sit on my feet. He was such a
cool dude.
Both of them had deformed shells
because I fed them ox heart and cat
biscuits. I didn’t know any better then.
I got another turtle because the owners
went to the Chatham Islands. So I had
one female and two males. Again I
learnt a lot from that. My males used
to fight with her around. I didn’t realise
I should separate them, you just didn’t
know. No one had turtles at the time,
and Google certainly wasn’t around.
Terri came from a magician. She was
covered in green algae; she had never
been out of the water. Part of her shell
had rotted. I had to figure it out.
Basically, it all started when a vet who
worked for the SPCA said I knew about
as much as he did about turtles and
would I foster turtles that came through
the SPCA. That was about 11 years ago.
My first rescue was Avon, out of the Riv-
er Avon, who was deathly unwell. I tried
antibiotics and things. A little old lady
had found her on her lawn. She had
come from a creek in her backyard.
I remember being in a supermarket
and buying shrimps or something, I was
talking to the supermarket girl: “I have
13 turtles”. I thought jeepers, that’s
huge … and the way she looked at me,
as though I was mad.
I currently have 64 in my house. They’re
in the lounge, in the garage, a few are
in the ponds outside, in the conser-
vatory. There are over 100 in my care.
The others are in foster homes at rest
homes or primary schools, with people
who can’t have a turtle for a long time.
I also have some in a big 10m x 15m
pond that belongs to a couple I once
helped with their turtle. They have a lot
of my long-term turtles. I send turtles
out there to hibernate. I regularly have
18-20 turtles out there. own, but when you have 64, that’s quite
a lot.
Many are found. I had one pulled out
the Cashmere Stream this spring, it
had started waking up, had been aban-
doned. She looked OK, not very pink
from septicemia, but not moving. She
died on the third night, had no interest
in food, just full of infection. She had
probably not been brought up with cor-
rect food and light. Red meat can cause
gout and liver problems.
I get turtles that come in because
people have heard of me. “My son has
left home, I have to look after it; it’s too
much work!” You have one turtle! I have
64, and a fulltime job. I suss out if I feel
the turtle is in a safe place, and if it is I
say “ring me in a month, it’s winter, my
power bill is over $1000”.
I’m getting the number of tanks down.
I have a 6-foot tank and a 4-foot tank
in the lounge. I have a number of black
500 litre ponds that are freestanding –
four of these are in use at the moment.
One is in the conservatory. I have four
big tanks and a pond in the garage, and
there are ponds outside. It is insane. In
winter, I have 15 tanks and the ponds.
You need to change the water in turtle
tanks every week because they pee and
poo in it. Every seven to 10 days I clean
the glass and change the water, one
tank will take 20 minutes. I have a very
flexible garden hose that comes inside.
Sometimes I think: when will it stop?
When will I be back to just me and my
turtles. I have a dozen that I call my Four turtles have come in because
owners have killed themselves. In
Christchurch, the suicide rate is
high because of the quakes.
At the time of the quake, I had, I don’t
even remember ... the quake happened
on Tuesday and by Friday I had 45
turtles here. I had no water. The tanks
had exploded, there was broken glass
everywhere. Even the tanks that were
intact were full of glass and I couldn’t
clean them. I was running on one tank.
Ten days without water. I had a lot in
large plastic containers, they were on
the floor in the lounge. The turtles took
turns in the water. There were towels
and turtles all over the floor.
People would turn up at the door, the