A native South Carolina box turtle. | State Sen. Thomas McElveen via Twitter
A native South Carolina box turtle. | State Sen. Thomas McElveen via Twitter
It's been nearly 10 months since Gov. Henry McMaster signed a law to protect South Carolina's native turtle species from being poached and sold — and at least one lawmaker said he believes it's already working.
State Sen. Thomas McElveen (D-Sumter) recently tweeted several photos of one of the turtles now protected under state law.
"Maybe the prettiest box turtle I've ever run across," McElveen wrote in his Twitter post. "Glad South Carolina is finally protecting these magnificent indigenous animals."
State residents teamed up with the Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Survival Alliance, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, to push for legislation that would save the state's turtles.
A release by the Columbia-based Center for Biological Diversity, states McMaster signed House Bill 4831 banning the commercial trade of turtles native to South Carolina on Sept. 28, 2020, that went into effect just over a week later on Oct. 7.
The law makes it illegal for people to own, sell, trade, ship, or remove 13 species of the state's native turtles with some exceptions such as conservation and zoological reasons, the release said.
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