…lucky to be alive I guess because when I was a kid I had a tiny pet turtle. I named him Oscar and would take him down to the creek and let him do his turtle thing while I went hunting for salamanders. Wonder if they carry salmonella too which is something I had never heard of when I was of tiny pet turtle age back in the early ’60’s. I think everyone in the neighborhood had tiny pet turtles and you could buy one in the pet department at any G.C. Murphy’s but what we didn’t know was that they spread salmonella. By 1975 they would be outlawed. Before the ban tiny pet turtles were a big problem with an estimated 280,000 infections per year, mostly in little kids. And here I thought I just had the stomach flu and it was Oscar the whole time. The turtles you could buy that were eventually outlawed had shells of less than 4 inches in length. Now with the passage of time fewer people are aware of the need to be careful when handling the little reptiles because another turtle salmonella outbreak is happening. While you can’t buy them at G.C. Murphy’s since they’ve been out of business for years, see what those turtles did. This new batch are mostly sold by vendors at street fairs, outside sporting events and at flea markets which makes it harder for the FDA to enforce the law. The new age turtles have caused 37 cases of salmonella in 13 states. 12 cases were in children 5 or younger. So while the little Donatello’s appear perfectly happy, healthy and clean its just an act. Cowabunga!