Jamie Ee Wen Wei Straits Times 8 Aug 10;
Ms Tan says some of the museum's turtles and tortoises grew up in aquarium tanks, and will not survive well in a different environment. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
Her father had a soft spot for turtles and tortoises. For more than 30 years, she grew up nurturing them too, including abandoned ones.
Their Yunnan Gardens home came to be crowded with more of the reptiles.
Nine years ago, Ms Connie Tan and her father Danny Tan opened the first and only turtle and tortoise museum in Singapore.
Located at the Chinese Garden in Jurong, the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum now houses more than 1,600 of the chelonians - the scientific term for these marine and land shelled reptiles.
But some visitors came away upset after seeing what seemed to be confined spaces.
One of them, Mr Russell Eley, wrote to The Straits Times.
His letter on July 31 said tortoises were displayed alone in 'very confined spaces on bare concrete floors without access to food or water'.
Turtles were also 'cruelly displayed in stark tanks without space to swim', he wrote.
But the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which did a check, did not find any overcrowding or ill-treatment.
The smaller reptiles are kept in more than 75 glass aquarium tanks, while the bigger ones live in 10 ponds.
The museum said all its ponds and tanks are large, with sufficient space for the chelonians to move about. The enclosures are cleaned and maintained every day and the animals are fed daily too.
Ms Tan, 40, said there have been previous complaints by visitors, mainly tourists.
'Some walk in and the moment they see the tanks, they storm out and give my staff a tongue-lashing without hearing them out,' she said.
Ms Tan, who is also a manager of an events company, said some tourists felt that some of the animals, which are endangered species, should be placed in natural enclosures, not knowing that many were actually her pets from as far back as 1978.
This was before Singapore joined an international convention in 1986 to ban the import and export of endangered species.
'They grew up in aquarium tanks. If we put them in a different environment, they won't know how to get to their food.'
The AVA said many of the museum's animals are captive-bred and would be vulnerable if returned to the wild. It has asked the museum to increase the size of the tanks accordingly as the chelonians grow.
Many species in the museum's live collection are rare, including the alligator snapping turtle and the pig-nosed turtle.
The museum also has more than 5,000 turtle and tortoise artefacts - the world's largest collection - which earned it a spot in the Guinness World Records in 2005.
These artefacts include a 40kg crystal turtle from Venice costing $12,800.
The museum has full-time staff who clean and maintain the tanks and ponds daily. The tank dwellers are taken out a few times a week for sunlight and to roam around the museum's garden.
Weekends see volunteers coming to give the turtles and tortoises a back scrub.
Over the years, the Tans have built ponds in the museum to accommodate the bigger tortoises. Those that are separated had shown signs of aggression or were attacked by others, Ms Tan said.
The family has spent at least $1.5 million to run the museum, which receives as many as 100 visitors a day.
The entry fees are $5 for adults, and $3 for senior citizens and children under six.
'Only a few people know about the effort and passion we put in. They support us and make donations. But we also get criticisms... it can get very disappointing,' Ms Tan said.
