Quote Originally Posted by SlowButSteady View Post
A round of applause for the reptile friendly! And good picture Bleecher St.

I'm also a long time catcher of turtles and snakes. I'll even help out the venomous snakes.

The last snapper I rescued had been straddled by a car. The turtle was so tall that the undercarriage of the car scraped some of the carapace scales off. Needless to say, it was one po'd turtle.

I threw him in the back of my Honda Element and went on about my business. When he started to come over the back seats at me, I scrounged a box from a pal. I took him back to my office for some topical treatment (I'm a vet) before releasing him.

Oh, yeah, I weighed him: 24 lbs.

People, if you've never handled snapping turtles, be careful! You're not going to be bitten on your hand if you're quick in grabbing the tail, but they can strike as quickly as a snake (and are twice as ill-tempered) so hold them as far away from your body as possible. It is somewhat difficult to hold a >20lbs turtle at armslength for more than a short time.

They are quite capable of taking off fingers or parts of your hand.

The tail technique also works well for oppossums. Sometimes you have to shake them a little bit to keep them from climbing back up their own tail to bite you. And they stink waaay worse than turtles.
My grampa (who died many years ago) had part of one of his fingers bitten off my a snapping turtle! At least, that was the story he told all of us grandkids when we'd ask where the rest of his finger was