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What do i do with them??

Azhael

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So i came back home yesterday after finishing my exams, i set all the aquariums and terrariums at my parent´s house, and decide to go out see some friends and relax a bit after a horrible day of cleaning, packing and moving things. I call this friend and she says "come home i´ve got a present for you"...so i go and....O_O three fire salamanders! She says she bought them in a petshop in Barcelona. So here´s the problem...they are most likely wild caught...and i don´t want them if they are. As far as i know it´s a forbidden species here in spain....as all the other national caudates. I´m sure it´s not legal to sell them in shops even if they are captive bred. There are no papers...not even a bill (some animals here are sold either with the cites, or with a bill that precises their origin).
I´m taking for granted they are wild caught because they were cheap (45euros the three of them). Also i´m almost sure they are fastuosas...so wild caught individuals from north spain was my first thought.
But there are a couple of things that make me doubt. They are very docile, they will let you handle them no problem. Also they ate frozen bloodworms right out of the tweezers. One even tried to bite the tweezers. That doesn´t sound like the behaviour you would expect in wild caught animals . Also they seem to be very hardy, my friend kept them in deficient conditions for nearly two weeks, and for what she told me they were kept in a very inapropiate set up in the shop. But still they ate for her(crickets). I would expect wild caught animals to suffer from a lot of stress, illneses or even die in such conditions. You would expect them to be thin or even starving...not fat and taking frozen bloodworms from the very first day(it took me a couple of months to get my marms to eating frozen bloodworms...but these salamanders will even eat the ones that fall on the moss). All my other caudates are captive bred and i can tell they aren´t half as docile as these ones. All my caudates eat great (specially the dobros) but these guys beat them all.
I thought that maybe they are long term captives...but two of them are pretty young (the third one is an adult), so i just dont know...
If they are wild caught i definitely don´t want them. But then i don´t know what to do with them...releasing them somewhere doesn´t sound clever. Also if they are captive bred, i would love keeping them cause they are very beautiful animals, but i got no papers of them so i could get in trouble if i keep them. There´s a pretty high fine for keeping this species illegally.
Any advice of what to do with them...??? My friend just didn´t know about the laws...being sold in a shop she took for granted they were perfectly legal, and as she knows i love the species she thought it would be a great present...
Oh...haven´t had time to get some pics, i´ll try today...definitely nice looking critters n_n
 

Azhael

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Here they are, first the two little ones and finally the adult (male?).
 

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Jennewt

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Even if you knew the correct locality, it would be wrong to try to release them back into the wild, as they may have caught germs at the pet shop.

You could try asking the pet shop about whether it's possible to obtain papers to keep them legally. But I doubt that this will go anywhere.

Then your choice is to turn them over to the authorities, or keep them and take your chances.
 

Azhael

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I don´t even know the name of the petshop...and it´s in Barcelona so i can´t go and try to find it....
I´m pretty convinced they are not wild caught...or at least they have been captive for a long time. But still with no papers it´s the same as if i had collected them myself...
Would you recomend taking them to the authorities? could i get into trouble? I´m not releasing them into the wild cause first of all, i don´t know their exact origin and i don´t want to contaminate any population...and secondly as you said i could be introducing pathogens. If you could please tell me more about the authorities and how to contact them and what will happen then, i´d be thankful....if not i guess i´ll have to keep them and hope i never get fined :S Damn....always wanted this species...but not this way...
 

Azhael

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I wasn´t told...but the guy that helped me and took me there told me that they will probably keep them captive themselves or relocate them to some "special" home. I have no idea if this is true though...but i guess it´s probable since releasing them wouldn´t be a good idea.
 

Farom

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Generally the authorities will just euthanize/kill illegal animals unless they're able to give them to a zoo or something.
I would've just kept them and not told anyone about it. The authorities aren't just magically going to show up at your house with a search warrant.
 

ecoreptiles

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If it was making you nervous, then the best thing was to turn them in. I have been on the receiving end of animals captured by or turned in to "the authorities".

Don't worry that you condemned them to death; they will probably end up at a zoo, university, or wildlife education center. Many of the reptiles and amphibians I cared for through my university career were such animals. (Confiscated from a stripper, rolled up in tent accidentally, moved into a town with strict animal by-laws, etc.)

Every choice we make in life presents us with an opportunity to learn from the results. Check how you are feeling about your decision now, and that will help you if you find yourself in a similar situation again. It sounds like it was stressing you out, so I think you did the right thing by removing the source of the stress.

True, authorities aren't likely to raid your house and search for illegal pets, but if someone told them to do it, they would. And that would definitely suck. I guess the thing to do now is put some heat on that pet store and have the authorities make sure they're keeping it legal in Barcelona.
 
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