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Audi LaFever looks at the Red-eared Slider turtles her family bought during Fall Festival in September. Audi, 3, is recovering from salmonella her family says she got from the turtles' aquarium recently.

Girl gets sick from turtle sold at Fall Fest
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: January 08, 2015

A Valley Center girl is recovering from salmonella poisoning this week after contracting the disease from one of the small turtles her family bought from an unlicensed seller during the Fall Festival in September.

Shane LaFever said his 3-year-old daughter, Audi, must have come in contact with infected water from the turtle's aquarium recently.

LaFever said he has since gotten rid of the two Red-eared Slider turtles.

"I just want my family to be done with it, and I want other families to know that it is a risk," he said. "It's not a risk I will ever take again."

Reptiles and amphibians can carry the salmonella germ without exhibiting any symptoms. However, salmonella can cause serious illness in humans, especially the young and the elderly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It can be deadly for children," said Audi's grandmother, Joni LaFever-Parcell, who lives in Valley Center.

On Christmas morning, Audi became sick with diarrhea and a high fever. Since then, she has been in the hospital emergency room twice and her doctor's office three times, LaFever-Parcell said.

Doctors thought it was the stomach flu. After testing a stool sample, however, they determined it was salmonella, probably contracted from a reptile or amphibian, Shane LaFever said.

Shane LaFever also got sick last week, but he said it was unknown whether he had salmonella.

Although it is illegal to sell turtles with shells that measure less than 4 inches in length in the United States, game warden Dennis Zehr with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism said pet stores can obtain permits to sell them.

Though all turtles can carry the germ, small turtles are especially dangerous to young children who may treat them as toys and put them in their mouths.

Jordan's Pets out of El Paso, Texas, sold the turtles at Fall Festival at a cost of one for $15 or two for $25.

"I wanted a turtle," Shane LaFever said. " … When I saw them up there, with technology these days, I figured they did something about (the salmonella issue). … Of course, we still washed our hands after we touched them."

LaFever said they took the turtles out of the aquarium about once every two weeks, but "the kids never really handled them."

He said he thinks Audi was exposed through the small drops of water that splashed off the filter in the aquarium.

"That's the only thing I can think of," he said. "We didn't let them hold them."

Victor Sandoval with Jordan's Pets said he didn't have a permit to sell the turtles in Kansas.

Zehr said he ticketed a group of turtle sellers and confiscated about 500 turtles caught selling them in Derby last year. He said he wasn't sure if it was the same group, but they were also from El Paso, Texas.

Sandoval admitted his company was ticketed for selling turtles while they were in Kansas.

"I have a tax permit, and that's about it," said Sandoval, adding that he had a non-game dealer's permit to sell turtles in Texas but didn't know a permit was required in Kansas.

Sandoval said he will not sell turtles in Kansas anymore, "not if we need a permit."

Marshella Peterson, director of the Valley Center Chamber of Commerce, which organizers retailers for the Fall Festival, said this was the first time the festival had a turtle company. The company contacted the chamber through its website.

LaFever-Parcell said she wanted people to be aware of the dangers small turtles pose for young children.





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