Io mi sto ancora leggendo la discussione del forum inglese. Anche la' qualcuno sostiene fortemente la "bonta'" di questa farm slovena, nel modo altrettanto misterioso con cui avviene fa: io ci sono stato ma non so/non posso dire dove si trova, io ci ho mandato il cugino di mio cognato ecc. ecc.
Ci sono interessanti interventi di Andy Highfield del Tortoise Trust che riporto qua (posso tradurre se occorre):
In questo primo intervento si mostra piuttosto dubbioso per il numero di grosse marginate presenti. Ritiene inoltre che le tarte non sono nate la' visto lo stato dei recinti ma sono arrivate da altre parti pronte per essere venduteThe tortoises in the first enclosure are all Testudo marginata. I am surprised Chris did not point this out.
I have some major concerns about this pen. Those tortoises have not been in it for very long. A few months, maybe. See grass erosion pattens. It looks very recent. They are all adults. Presumably breeding stock. However... that density of Marginated tortoises in one relatively small area is surprising. As anyone who has kept and bred them will know, or who has studied them in the wild, they are very aggressive and territorial. An open pen like that, with minimal shelter and clear line-of-sight is a recipe for stress. It has a flat, grassy, plain. This is likely to result in a high number of egg retention issues, in addition. I would ask any keeper to imagine feeding this density, in addition. According to documents submitted by the farms a couple of years ago, the diet consists of "protein pellets, vegetables and fruit". It is also claimed that they "hibernate naturally". Where? In that pen? In those huts? At Slovenian winter temperatures?
Chris, did you personally take these pictures? If not, who did, and when? Why did you not disclose that the pen features T. marginata and not T. hermanni?
Incidentally, no-one has ever suggested that all of the alleged "captive bred" tortoises appearing on the market labeled as from Slovenia are wild-caught, simply that a percentage certainly appear to be.
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Un tale chiede se lui (A. H.) ne sapesse qualcosa di questa farm dalle autorita' sloveni competentiFor give me if I’m wrong Andy but did I not see some comments posted somewhere that you had been in contact with the Slovenian authorities and had been informed that there were no such farms in Slovenia? Perhaps I am mistaken, if I am then I apologise. It was actually the Slovenian Herpetological Society, Chris. It was a few years ago now, and they simply stated that they had "no knowledge of any such activities".
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Alcune info di provenienze degli animali, nel 1982. Altro che mamma appassionata! Arrivano dalla Macedonia, forseThe first Testudo hermanni breeding stock on this farm is stated to date back to 1982 " First 200 females and 50 males (founder stock) were obtained in 1982 from Macedonia (captive bred).
t would be interesting to know exactly who was producing hundreds of CB T. hermanni in Macedonia, in 1982. As far as I am aware, this claim remains completely unverified. It is conveniently not recorded anywhere officially. There are now said to be 2780 animals, 2160 females and 620 males in the T. hermanni stock.
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Altri dubbi su recinti, costi e modi di gestione:Helen, regarding vegetation in the pens. You are missing the point, slightly. The point I am making is the vast task (and cost) of feeding animals in pens like this. It only makes sense in certain situations from a business perspective. It does not compute if you are aiming for a long term sustainable model. Please try to imagine feeding 2,780 Testudo hermanni adults (not to mention the other species on the same site). How long would this take? What would it cost? Where are the supplies coming from? Why do things like that when you could do it easier, cheaper, and better? If I was running a commercial reptile farm, it would be top of my agenda. I have visited dozens of commercial reptile producers all over the world, and I have a fair idea of what is involved.
The farm has, in fact, imported large numbers of tortoises from all over the place. They were openly advertising FOR tortoises not too long ago... that is certainly where the T. marginata, G. elegans, M. tornieri, etc, have come from.
Personally, when I run the numbers on the CITES trade database (
http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/trade.shtml) for Slovenia, it raises more questions than it answers.
We could no doubt argue back and forth for ever over this, but these photos raise even more questions for me. They look more like a ranching operation (as seen in West Africa, for example) than a genuinely closed-cycle sustainable breeding operation. I am certain they are breeding large numbers - the issue is where this breeding stock came from, and is coming from (see comment on their importing activities). No doubt they will say it is all captive bred and totally legitimate. Well, they would, wouldn't they?
Historically, it is interesting too. This whole operation only began to make economic sense after the fall of communism and EU memmbership. Prior to that, there were no exports, and no internal market either. So the people who set this up "25 years" ago had the most remarkable forsight, didn't they? Especialy as according to a statement by Mr. Dular, the "first eggs were hatched in 2004" (!) (The Breeding of Tortoises in Slovenia. Vet. Nov. 2005, 31: 173-183)
Lots of questions, lots of contradictions. It would be interesting to get some real answer
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A quanto pare la slovenia era un centro di "raccolta" di animali selvatici:There are problems with Slovenia, however.
One issue is the undoubted fact that it seems to be used as a place to 'launder' WC animal through. For example, in 2004 there was a criminal prosecution to that effect, involving a very large number of T. hermanni originating in Croatia and being trans-shipped via Slovenia. This case arose as a result of the UK CITES authority reporting suspected fraud to the Slovenian and Croation authorities on the basis of animals imported to the UK.
Other cases involved denial of Slovenian import permits for T. graeca (from Jordan) and Uromastyx species from Sudan. Both cases involved the falsification of documents. The destination of these animals was one of the establishments referred to in this thread.
This is not encouraging, as it is clear proof that there are serious irregularities taking place.
Sto ancora leggendo, pare poi che qualcuno dei partecipanti al forum abbia visitato il posto. Comnuque la ricostruzione storia e' piuttosto semplice: hanno legalizzato cio' che legale non era. Poi e' possibile che adesso si comportino benissimo.