Endangered tortoises killed in Lakewood Ranch

As 11-year-old Walker Speir rode his bicycle June 8 along a path between Summerfield and Greenbrook, he wasn’t surprised to see the gopher tortoise that lived along the walkway, as he normally did.

What shocked him, however, was when he rode the same path just a few hours later and found the tortoise dead with its shell cracked. He and his brother, Owen, also saw a second tortoise farther down the path sitting in a pool of blood.

Walker texted his friend, 10-year-old Marina Redden: “Come look at the turtles.”

“It was terrible,” Marina Redden said when she visited the site.

Marina’s dad, Ray Redden,  took the injury tortoise to the Bayshore Animal Hospital in Sarasota.

Marina was hoping their actions would save the tortoise. “He was going ‘ahhh’ and gurgling,” Marina Redden said of the sounds the tortoise made during the trip.

Ultimately, the tortoise’s injuries proved too severe and he died, too.

“It’s disappointing,” Walker Speir said. “They looked so calm and nice, and they were beaten to death.”

Marina’s mom, Angela Redden, said someone purposely targeted the creatures, most likely slamming their shells with a hammer or flipping them upside down and throwing them onto the concrete sidewalk.

Ray Redden said there was one circular splatter near the first dead turtle, with no marks indicating it had moved itself off the sidewalk. The second turtle sat it in a pool of blood and there were two other similar marks — circular pools of blood — on the sidewalk. A vehicle would have created a different blood splatter pattern, Redden believes.

“There was no blood trail,” Ray Redden said.

Residents of the Lakewood Ranch community are outraged by the death of the tortoises, who lived along the pathway just west of Greenbrook Adventure Park and near Heron’s Nest Park.

Summerfield Glades resident Greg Fielder and his wife, Sandy, have seen the gopher tortoise along the path to Heron’s Nest park for at least five years. Sandy Fielder saw the dead turtle on her way to the dog park in Greenbrook’s Adventure Park and told her husband.

“His shell was cracked right open and everything was coming out,” said Greg Fielder. “People walk there all morning. It really made me mad. It really broke my heart. I got a shovel and buried it out there in the woods.”

On the online neighborhood forum nextdoor.com, at least three people have offered rewards totaling $1,100 to help catch the culprit. At a Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 1 meeting June 14, Supervisor Laurie Fox said she would offer a $500 reward if the CDD didn’t do it first. The district attorney is researching the issue.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a reward hotline for such incidences. Gopher tortoises are protected by Florida law, which prohibits individuals from intentionally killing or harming them. Doing so is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, a $5,000 fine, or both.

Information leading to an arrest may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Paul Chetlain, director of operations for the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority, said CDD 4 (Greenbrook) has had some vandalism, including graffiti and small fires, in the Heron’s Nest park area over the past six months. He has requested additional patrols in the area from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.