Gopher tortoises catch a break (no more developers smothering them)

[flvegan]

Developers no longer will be allowed to pave their burrows with them inside.

By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published June 14, 2007

MELBOURNE - For 16 years, the state's wildlife agency has issued permits allowing developers to bury gopher tortoises alive, suffocating them and all the other animals that use their burrows as a home.

On Wednesday, the agency's board voted unanimously to end the practice, condemned as inhumane and immoral by animal advocates.

"This is long overdue," state wildlife commission Chairman Rodney Barreto said. "What we've done here is wrong, and it's time we made it right."

Tortoise burrows also provide a home for about 300 other species. Those, too, were suffocated to death when the burrows were sealed up and paved over.

Development representatives said nobody really wanted to suffocate thousands of tortoises. But paying to move the tortoises to another location was more expensive than buying a permit to suffocate them.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/14/State/Gopher_tortoises_catc.shtml



It was more "practical" to pave over the burrows after getting a take permit, according to the developer response in the article. The word that should've been used is "cheaper" but then they'd look bad.