‘I love ’em to death’
Woman gives home to hundreds of neglected tortoises.
After KENNEWICK, WASH. — hours of digging, Cossett was ready to lay her eggs.
“Keep going, sweetie,” coaxed Terese Meyer as the tan-and-yellow eastern box turtle readied her nest.
Cossett burrowed into the dirt, using her rear feet like shovels, before finally depositing four eggs, all smooth, oval-shaped and blue-ish, in the nest.
By the next morning, life was back to normal. Cossett would spend the day searching for bugs and roaming around her pen, which is bordered by cinder blocks and filled with grass, hostas, logs and a wide concrete water basin.
“She is a very social girl,” explained Meyer, who took in Cossett after another animal rescue went out of business. “Very mellow. And she’s a great hunter.”
Cossett is one of more than 200 tortoises that Meyer is caring for in her backyard — and she can identify every single one of them by name.
There’s Xenia, a three-toed box turtle who lost parts of her shell to rot; there’s Lewis, a sulcata tortoise whose shell has pyramided, leaving it bumpy and uneven, due to malnutrition; and there’s Hemingway, a Greek Ibera tortoise who now does regular water therapy after he nearly froze from spending almost an entire winter outside.
About four and a half years ago, Meyer launched the nonprofit rescue Northwest Tortoise out of her 1,800-squarefoot house at the end of a Kennewick cul-de-sac. There, she offers injured, malnour- ished or neglected tortoises sanctuary.
“There is a huge gap of correct knowledge between the pet industry and what is actually correct keeping,” Meyer, 48, said of caring for tortoises, which are gaining in popularity as pets.
Meyer bought her first tortoise, a Greek Ibera, from a reptile show in Tucson, Arizona, more than 20 years ago. The breeder gave her some advice on care and diet, and Meyer took her new pet home. The tortoise was dead 13 years later — decades short of its typical life span.
“That’s what started me on this quest to learn something,” Meyer said.
Meyer started ordering books on tortoise care, read- ing research papers and reaching out to other animal experts. She quickly learned a lot: Males and females should not share pens. Make sure Meyer said more people are not to hang lights at an angle, starting to realize the required otherwise the light bounces care is too demanding and off the wall and glares into her intake numbers have skythe tortoise’s eyes. Never rocketed. She rescued eight use glass tanks — the slip- tortoises in 2017 and four in pery surfaces cause defor- 2018. This year, she’s already mations in how the animals’ taken in 15. feet develop. And diversify “Busy is an understatetheir diet. ment,” said Meyer, who works
She also continued adoptfull time in the communicaing tortoises as pets and eventions department of Washing- tually tried breeding and sellton River Protection Solutions ing them at reptile shows. in Hanford. She also devotes
“What I found there was a at least 30 hours a week to the mass money grab,” she said. tortoise nonprofit. “It’s like
Other breeders at the working two full-time jobs.” shows weren’t looking to As soon as she gets home make sure these animals had from her first job, she’s out safe homes, Meyer realized. in the backyard to do her They just wanted to sell the second. new hatchlings as quickly as Three times a week, she possible. cleans the tortoises’ water
In an attempt to educate basins out with a Shop-Vac. the public, Meyer quickly She takes hours to feed became the go-to person at them — every tortoise spereptile shows for knowledge cies requires a different diet, on tortoise care. Some peo- whether it’s leafy greens, ple even began bringing their boiled chicken, flowers, or sick tortoises to her, asking all three. She soaks the dehy- for help or hoping she’d take drated tortoises in plastic bins the animal off their hands. filled with water. She trims
She cautiously agreed to their overgrown beaks. bring some home, but word Once winter approaches, spread fast. it’s even more hectic.
Her inbox became flooded Starting in September, with questions, and she did Meyer begins moving all the her best to respond to each tortoises into two insulated, one. She built a website 80-85-degree sheds in the filled with information, creyard to keep them warm. ated brochures and, in 2014, The sheds are crowded with started her nonprofit. Soon, separateplexiglass-and-wood her backyard was filled with pens, hanging lamps and tortoises. heating compartments. The
Reptile experts agree that main shed has at least 25 ther- most people have no idea mometers, she said. how much effort goes into “I have an unending admicaring for tortoises. ration of her devotion to them
Alyssa Borek, a lead zoo- … She cares about each and keeper who specializes in every one of them,” said reptiles and amphibians at Kathy Batdorf, a veterinarian Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, at Kennewick’s Vista Veteri- said that because tortoises nary Hospital who has worked aren’t native to Washington, with Meyer for years. “She she thinks there’s a big prob- doesn’t seem to get jaded lem with wildly traded ani- from it.” mals that are often brought Although Batdorf specialto the United States illegally. izes in dogs and cats, she
“There’s a lot of people often helps Meyer with injecthat either import animals tions and X-rays. or just try to sell them withWhile she used to welcome out looking at the facilities volunteers, her biggest help people have,” Borek said. “If now comes from donations, someone wanted to purchase she said. something, there would usuShe spends about $5,000 ally be no vetting.” per year on the nonprofit, though sometimes medications and vet bills can cause that number to shoot up. Northwest Tortoise is “completely sustainable,” she said, but much of the organization’s income comes from donations.
Her husband, David Spaulding, 46, is supportive of his wife’s mission and tries to help out as much as he can.
“I am not as passionate about tortoises as Terese, but I am passionate about Terese and her dedication to helping educate people, and work to care for animals who are in terrible condition through poor care, misinformation and other reasons,” he said.
While Meyer doesn’t work with many animal rescues, the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County has transferred a handful of tortoises to her over the last few years, said organization spokeswoman Ashley Taulbee.
“(Northwest Tortoise) is basically one of the only rescues in the area that accepts turtles and tortoises,” Taulbee said. “And to our understanding, they’re reputable.”
On a recent Friday morning — on a day off from her paying job — Meyer sat down on her outdoor patio to tend to Tommy, an eastern box turtle whose toes were eaten off by mites. He also suffers from shell rot, so three times a week, she mixes a bactericide/virucide solution together and roughly scrubs the dead tissue off the bottom of his shell with a toothbrush (though differ- ent kinds of shell rot call for various medications).
“Hey, buddy boy, don’t be shy,” she said, encouraging Tommy to poke his head out.
Even though it’s an enor- mous amount of work, this job is for life. In fact, Meyer said she has her “turtle will” all planned out: When she dies, she has money set aside through the rescueand a list of people she trusts to adopt the remaining tortoises.
Tortoises don’t show affection the way dogs or cats might, but Meyer is endlessly captivated by their hardiness, their temperament, their strength.
“I love ‘em to death,” she said. “They’re indestructible. If you erase humans from the equation, these guys are built to withstand the eons … They are virtually unchanged through evolution because their system is so perfect.”