Is it legal to capture/eat turtle in SG?

[fengwei]

I thought it's not, but saw some one captured a big one (3 to 4 kg at least) at 'Little Guilin' yesterday:







I asked the guys what they're gonna do with the turtle. They said they'd eat it ...

[sehsuan]

Let's await AVA to reply.

ava_email@ava.gov.sg

[dragos]

it is a BI. pig nose turtle...something like that...but to catch off little guilin...hmmm..

[cannonball]

I guess the poachers did not allow you to take photos of their face right?

Dont mean to be offensive, but I am surprised that you can bear to take a picture of the poor thing in the basket
and let them get away just like that..

Btw, i think you should call the police next time...if you spot them doing the same thing.
If not, more turtles will end up in their pots...

[LazerLordz]

Originally Posted by cannonball I guess the poachers did not allow you to take photos of their face right? Dont mean to be offensive, but I am surprised that you can bear to take a picture of the poor thing in the basket and let them get away just like that.. Btw, i think you should call the police next time...if you spot them doing the same thing. If not, more turtles will end up in their pots...

Precisely..

[waileong]

Heard of turtle soup? If hawkers can sell it in hawker centres openly, why is it illegal to catch and eat here?

The crime is against inhumane treatment of animals. That's why people kena prosecuted for pouring boiling hot water on cats, keeping huskies in the heat, etc. To kill an animal quickly for the purpose of consumption is not against the law. Otherwise all the people working in the slaughterhouses here, killing ducks and chickens every day, would be criminals.

In any case, why be so biased towards turtles or other exotic animals? Is the life of a chicken worth less than the life of a turtle?

Originally Posted by cannonball I guess the poachers did not allow you to take photos of their face right? Dont mean to be offensive, but I am surprised that you can bear to take a picture of the poor thing in the basket and let them get away just like that.. Btw, i think you should call the police next time...if you spot them doing the same thing. If not, more turtles will end up in their pots...

[sehsuan]

There's a distinction between those that may be raised in captivity for consumption, which I personally don't know if it exists; as well as catching one in what I reckon to be a NParks park.

[waileong]

It's not an NParks park. At best, NParks has oversight and regulatory power over the park. But they don't own it. It is a public park, it belongs to all of Singapore.

People catch fish to eat at Bedok jetty or even at the Esplanade area as well, that does not seem illegal.

Where's the distinction from catching a fish to catching a turtle?

Originally Posted by sehsuan There's a distinction between those that may be raised in captivity for consumption, which I personally don't know if it exists; as well as catching one in what I reckon to be a NParks park.

[sehsuan]

That, don't ask me.

I do believe turtles mature much more slowly than fish for the matter.

I'm awaiting a reply from AVA regarding this anyway.

[fengwei]

Originally Posted by cannonball I guess the poachers did not allow you to take photos of their face right? Dont mean to be offensive, but I am surprised that you can bear to take a picture of the poor thing in the basket and let them get away just like that.. Btw, i think you should call the police next time...if you spot them doing the same thing. If not, more turtles will end up in their pots...

Well, actually they didn't say that I couldn't take photos of their faces, I just thought it's not appropriate to take photos of strangers without permission (it's not a tourist spot or area like Little India anyway).

Why I took pics? I never saw a turtle that big outside a zoo, and I thought maybe I should keep a record or something for this. Our cameras aren't only for beautiful things ...

As I said above, I didn't know if it's legal or not to do this, and I guess the police has more important things to handle ...

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

[cannonball]

I do consume meats as well..
and the debate on "can a non-vegetarian be promoting Anti-exotic animal killing/consumption" will go on for another 100 years.

As much as I know, any form of meat that I consumed...are farmed or commerically fished with permit.
You might want to ask "What is the big deal about it???"

If there is no law against such poachers, many exotic animals would have been extinct by now..
If one day, the "normal" chicken that we consumed everyday..is facing extinction. I would glad to give it up so that illegal poachers would not be killing one of the last 10,000 chicken in the world.

Basically, poaching is disgusting...
if one feels that it is right to kill and consume any form of living creatures, as long as it does not belong to anyone...regardless if its a chicken on the road, or turtle in the pond..
Then I highly advise him/her to avoid places like sungei buloh where he/she will be tempt to kill birds for dinner...lizards for tonic, etc.

I, personally do not consume turtle soups...
and I would also highlight that turtles in your bowl at geylang, should be farmed or fished with permit. (permit is for goverment bodies to control the population of fishermen and fish/turtles)..
If the hawker, tell you that he fished the turtle himself at ponds, then I do advise you not to eat it, reasons being...1) safe to eat? 2) he is a poacher

Anyway, let AVA deal with this matter and I just hope that you can help by informing the police regarding such matters again..

I believe, a turtle's life is still worth the police's effort to drive over and stop the act.
Let the police decide if it is an IMPORTANT THING to handle, and not us.

btw, pal...no hard feelings..dont mean to fight regarding this matter..
just a good old debate...

[Zplus]

Its illegal to poach in a public park. They probably think they will not be caught.

[waileong]

Thanks for your views. I can agree to disagree. We don't have to fight. We don't have to call each other names.

What do I disagree with?

a. That catching or eating exotic animals is somehow wrong, or more wrong compared to eating an ordinary animal.

If you believe in the sanctity of life, how can the life of a chicken be less than the life of a dog or turtle or monkey?

b. That catching and eating wild animals is disgusting compared to eating farmed animals.

If you have time, go watch some videos produced by the vegetarian movement, these show the lives of battery chickens, how they are injected with growth hormones, how they hardly have space to move, how they grow so fat their legs can't even support them.

Which is more disgusting? The life of a farmed animal? Or the death of a wild animal?

c. That the meats we eat are farmed or caught with permits.

That could be true for farmed animals, but certainly not for while animals like sharks' fin, tuna, etc. where fishermen go out to the open sea for days to catch them. Yes, there are certain regulations (eg they only can catch fish above a certain size) but that does not mean that the adult fish they catch are not wildlife, and that we are not killing them by eating them.

In other words, it's just as cruel to kill fish commercially as it is for a man on the street to do so in Little Guilin. Do you think the fish bothers who caught it, who killed it, and whether the guy who killed it was authorised to do so or had a permit?

In any case, I also don't think you need to be a permit to be a fisherman in many countries. It's a form of traditional livelihood for many countries around this region. They don't have laws to limit how often fishermen can go to sea or how much fish they can catch. And even if they did, it's too easy to get around such regulations anyway.

You should see a commercial fishing fleet in action. It's massive! They use sonar to track fish, huge nets, the have large holds to keep the fish fresh before they reach shore, it's like working in a factory, except the job every day is killing live fish, gutting them, cleaning them.

d. Trade and consumption of endangered species is outlawed by UN convention, but I've never heard of small turtles (the type that goes into turtle soup) being endangered. Frankly speaking, it's unlikely we have any endangered species here, Singapore is not exactly a paradise for exotic wildlife.

e. The term "poachers" carries a negative connotation, it typically refers to people who hunt animals for $$$ purpose, eg. to get ivory from elephants, skins from bears, penis from tigers, etc. It's highly unusual to refer to people who eat animals they hunt as "poachers". Most poachers are out there to make $$, not to fill their stomach with food.

If there are any regulations or laws against eating an animal that you caught in a public park, then at best these people have violated the regulation or law, but to call them "poachers" seems inappropriate.

To Zplus: Could you cite the law or regulation in question, so that we can see exactly what the wording is?

Originally Posted by cannonball I do consume meats as well.. and the debate on "can a non-vegetarian be promoting Anti-exotic animal killing/consumption" will go on for another 100 years. As much as I know, any form of meat that I consumed...are farmed or commerically fished with permit. You might want to ask "What is the big deal about it???" If there is no law against such poachers, many exotic animals would have been extinct by now.. If one day, the "normal" chicken that we consumed everyday..is facing extinction. I would glad to give it up so that illegal poachers would not be killing one of the last 10,000 chicken in the world. Basically, poaching is disgusting... if one feels that it is right to kill and consume any form of living creatures, as long as it does not belong to anyone...regardless if its a chicken on the road, or turtle in the pond.. Then I highly advise him/her to avoid places like sungei buloh where he/she will be tempt to kill birds for dinner...lizards for tonic, etc. I, personally do not consume turtle soups... and I would also highlight that turtles in your bowl at geylang, should be farmed or fished with permit. (permit is for goverment bodies to control the population of fishermen and fish/turtles).. If the hawker, tell you that he fished the turtle himself at ponds, then I do advise you not to eat it, reasons being...1) safe to eat? 2) he is a poacher Anyway, let AVA deal with this matter and I just hope that you can help by informing the police regarding such matters again.. I believe, a turtle's life is still worth the police's effort to drive over and stop the act. Let the police decide if it is an IMPORTANT THING to handle, and not us. btw, pal...no hard feelings..dont mean to fight regarding this matter.. just a good old debate...

[AReality]

Never heard the saying before?

The Chinese eat everything that moves on land, swims in the water, and flies in the air.



.

[Canew]

No lah. Not everything la. Only those that have their backs facing to the sky.

[stor]

What logic are you talking about on proaching? All parks in Singapore are protected and no one is supposed to take or destroy anything in all nature parks. Are you not aware the warning on " Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing behind but footprints ". You are obviously not aware of the need to protect our small pocket of nature among us on this tiny island.

We need more people who are concern on protecting the nature around us to stop these proaching by calling the relevant authorities to stop these acts. These people can easily fill their stomach with hawker food and not any animals from our nature parks. These acts need to be stop.

Steven Tor

Originally Posted by waileong . d. The term "poachers" carries a negative connotation, it typically refers to people who hunt animals for $$$ purpose, eg. to get ivory from elephants, skins from bears, etc. It's highly unusual to refer to people who eat animals they hunt as "poachers". Most poachers are out there to make $$, not to fill their stomach with food. If there are any regulations or laws against eating an animal that you caught in a public park, then at best these people have violated the regulation or law, but to call them "poachers" seems inappropriate.

[mpenza]

dunno abt the leagility of catching turtles at parks... but I know that even plucking fruits from trees along roadside is supposed to be illegal too!?!?

[waileong]

Originally Posted by mpenza dunno abt the leagility of catching turtles at parks... but I know that even plucking fruits from trees along roadside is supposed to be illegal too!?!?

Wow, S'pore very terok man like that...

[scramblur11]

Yupz it is legal to eat turtle in Singapore...I have eaten once at outram there I think..quite a long while ago....

But dun think it is legal to catch it from park den eat leh...... At least to me I feel it is cruel...

btw, that quite a big turtle...din know tat it has such big turtles at xiao gui lin.....

[blazer_workz]

if tat turtle is big..then i think i've seen a giant one..no image to post though..
it was caught from a canal near clementi road and ulu pandan..the man is oni trying to fish, but the giant turtle was hungry and bite its bait..3 other of his friend help to carry..

alot of cyclist & joggers crowd round to see..someone from the crowd suggest cooking turtle soup..but the men release it back to the canal..