PETA Reward: Up to $5,000 Offered in Turtle-Kidnapping Case

For Immediate Release:
September 28, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the safe return of five turtles recently stolen from the Autrey Mill nature preserve—and to the kidnappers’ conviction on criminal charges.

The three suspects, whom police believe to be young men, were caught on surveillance footage removing the turtles from their enclosure and placing them in a bucket at 6:20 p.m. on Sunday, September 19. Autrey Mill notes that it’s illegal to keep box turtles without a license in Georgia—and that the turtles are unlikely to survive if abandoned in nature.

Johns Creek police have released photos of the suspects, and PETA is asking for the public’s help in identifying them—before it’s too late for the missing turtles.

“Turtles know their ‘home range’ and will suffer every day that they’re separated from the home and caretakers that they know,” says PETA Senior Director of Cruelty Casework Stephanie Bell. “PETA is asking anyone who recognizes these suspects to come forward immediately so that these turtles can be safely returned home.”

Anyone with pertinent information should contact Johns Creek Police Detective R. Bucki at 678-474-1579 or [email protected].

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.