On this day in vegan history · May 23, 2000
World Turtle Day Begins
A Malibu rescue group set aside one day a year for an animal that outlasted the dinosaurs and is still losing ground to us.
The facts
- Date
- May 23, 2000, the first World Turtle Day
- Organizer
- American Tortoise Rescue, founded 1990 by Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson in Malibu, California
- Longevity
- Held every year since 2000, reaching its 26th year in 2026
- Stated threats
- American Tortoise Rescue cites smuggling, the exotic food and pet trades, habitat destruction and climate change
In 2000, the nonprofit American Tortoise Rescue, based in Malibu, California, launched World Turtle Day on May 23, an annual observance meant to get people to notice turtles and tortoises before their habitats disappear entirely. The group had been founded a decade earlier by the husband-and-wife team of Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, who spent their days pulling turtles out of storm drains, backyards and the exotic pet trade rather than running a marketing campaign. There was no big launch event, just a small rescue outfit deciding that some of the planet's oldest surviving animals deserved one day people actually stopped to think about. More than two decades on, the observance is still running every May, now marked by schools, zoos, aquariums and rescue groups worldwide.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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in an effort to increase awareness of the plight of turtles and tortoises and the environments that support them
Wikipedia, describing why American Tortoise Rescue began sponsoring World Turtle Day in 2000
Source: Wikipedia -
Turtles survived the dinosaurs. It would be a tragedy if they couldn't survive us
Susan Tellem, co-founder of American Tortoise Rescue
Source: World Turtle Day (American Tortoise Rescue)
Why it still matters
It gave one of the least glamorous corners of animal advocacy a permanent foothold on the calendar, turning a small rescue group's daily, unglamorous work into something schools, zoos and ordinary people now pause for once a year.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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