The Camden Police Department’s evidence room is stuffed with boxes of weapons, photographs, clothing and drugs.
In the city’s Bureau of Animal Control, the evidence is smaller than a silver dollar and swims to nowhere in a plastic tank with a fake palm tree.
Officers recovered four red-eared slider turtles Thursday after being thwarted once again in their hunt for the men who have reportedly been selling the reptiles on street stands here.
You see, in New Jersey, it’s illegal to sell pet turtles. In Camden, it’s illegal to even own one.
Because of those laws, the city’s animal-control officers took it seriously eight months ago when they began hearing complaints about roadside turtle sales.
Christian McGarry, acting supervisor of the city’s animal-control division, said he suspected at least two people have been purchasing the turtles in bulk from out-of-state breeders and peddling them for $10 or less.
“Apparently these turtles have now become the new pocket pets,” McGarry said. “It comes with their own cage, so what else do you need?”
McGarry and his staff of two officers checked out reported sales outside the Pathmark on Mount Ephraim Avenue; on a vacant lot off Admiral Wilson Boulevard, just before the Baird Boulevard exit; at 27th and River roads in Cramer Hill; and most recently, at Thorndyke Road and Marlton Pike in East Camden.
“Every time they get word we’re coming, they close up shop and move,” McGarry said.
An officer found four turtle cages pushed to the side of the Pathmark last Thursday, McGarry said, but everyone around claimed to know nothing about them.
Nationwide, the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of turtle eggs and turtles smaller than 4 inches in 1975, amid concerns about the transmission of salmonella, which the reptiles can carry on their shells. But the FDA regulation makes an exception for turtles sold for scientific, educational or exhibition purposes.
New Jersey also prohibits the sale of turtles, McGarry said. The state Division of Fish and Wildlife would handle charges for breaking that law if the sellers are caught, he added. Locally, McGarry said, Camden could charge sellers for operating without a business license as well as for owning prohibited animals.
Although New Jersey law allows turtles to be kept as pets as long as they are not purchased in the state, McGarry said, Camden has its own ordinance outlining permissible pets that dates to 1978.
According to city code, residents may not have any animals other than dogs, cats, rabbits, parrots, parakeets, myna birds, love birds and other normally accepted psittacine birds. Violation of that policy could lead to fines of up to $1,000 per day per animal.
McGarry said his office has only charged about 10 people for possession of turtles during the past five years. More common, he said, are complaints about farm animals, such as chickens, sheep, goats and pigs. McGarry said he even removed a pony from a Centerville apartment several years ago.