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To: The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Stop the turtle massacre!

A record number of turtles are being killed, injured, or maimed crossing Ontario’s highways.

The turtle trauma centre just declared state of emergency for turtles across the province, after taking in more than 600 injured turtles this year.

Ontario's government started to build underpasses on new highways so turtles can cross these roads safely, and conservationists say it’s been successful. If we act now, while this story is blowing up in the media, we can convince government to construct underpasses all over the province — prioritizing areas with the highest levels of turtle traffic.

Why is this important?

Faced with shrinking habitats, more and more turtles are forced to cross busy highways, where they’re getting slammed by oncoming traffic. Ontario’s turtles are already endangered, and unless government steps in this problem could keep getting worse.

The Ontario turtle trauma centre is doing all it can by operating on as many injured turtles as possible, but they’re bursting at the seams and can’t keep up with the volume of turtles coming in with cracked shells, fractured heads, and other life threatening injuries.

Underpasses allow turtles to avoid the risk of fatal injury. We need them across the province, starting in areas conservationists say are the most urgent.

Updates

2017-07-12 00:09:28 -0400

500 signatures reached

2017-07-10 18:12:30 -0400

100 signatures reached

2017-07-10 17:42:11 -0400

50 signatures reached

2017-07-10 17:30:37 -0400

25 signatures reached

2017-07-10 17:24:08 -0400

10 signatures reached