Dancing Turtle Rescue and Education Program, Inc.

09/15/2026

We get to post one more release! The garter snake who had been stuck to the glue trap recovered quickly from his ordeal and started looking for a way out of his tank. We saw no reason to keep him, so we took Uma home. He was released down the road from where we picked him up, in a spot with lots of tall grass and places to hide so he doesn't go back into the trap-filled shed.

Garter snakes hibernate in groups so we are glad he was able to return in time to find his people before it gets colder. Bye, Uma! Be well out there.

09/14/2026

We always have a great time at the Fairy and Magickal Creatures Festival in Elizabethtown, New York. It's a great place to introduce folks to our native turtle ambassadors and some of our rescued red eared sliders. And we are very grateful to Solstice LLC Susan G, Pete M - the festival organizers - for another generous donation after the festival to support our work. Thank you!

09/12/2026

Glue traps are awful. Besides being horribly inhumane to their intended victims, they are indiscriminate. This poor garter snake, named Uma for our records, had a third of his body stuck down, including his lower jaw. We used cooking oil to break down the glue and corn meal to absorb the excess oil and keep the snake from getting stuck again while we worked our way down his body.

It took 40 minutes to free Uma from the board. He was dehydrated and had one damaged scale, but is otherwise in good health. After he was cleaned up, he was given a comfy place to rest and have himself a soak. We'll hold him for a couple of days to make sure he is moving okay and is eating well. Then we'll find a good release spot near where he was caught but away from the excessive use of sticky traps and rat poison.

We're very grateful that the homeowner called rather than letting Uma perish on the trap, but we hate to see these horrible traps in use. Glue traps have been banned in several U.S. states already. It's time for New York to do the same. Also, we have seen glue traps advertised as "humane snake traps" because they say you can just pour oil on them to free the snake. Look at the pictures of what Uma endured while we freed him. It's pretty obvious that just pouring some oil on him wouldn't have done it. The best thing that can happen to companies that make glue traps and call them humane is for them to go out of business.

09/11/2026

We're looking forward to joining our friends from North Country Wild Care at this great event. Come out, meet our turtle ambassadors, and help us honor Kate's legacy.

🐾 Join Us THIS SATURDAY at PAWS for Kate at Common Roots Brewing! 🐾

Saturday, September 12th, 12-3pm
Come out for a great cause and meet some of North Country Wild Care’s live animal ambassadors at the annual PAWS for Kate event! 💚
We’re also excited to share that NCWC members Debbie from Dancing Turtle Rescue and Education Program, Inc., Alexis from Wild For Life inc. and Diane & John with ambassador birds & raptors will all be there with animals, bringing even more wildlife education and inspiration to the event! 🦉✨

This wonderful event honors the memory of Kate, a kind-hearted soul who dedicated so much to helping animals. We are so thankful to have known her and had the opportunity to work alongside her. Her passion lives on through this event, and we’re incredibly grateful to the organizers for hosting it each year and putting in so much effort to support local wildlife rehabbers like us. 🦝🦊🦉
Hope to see you there!

Common Roots Brewing Company, 58 Saratoga Ave, South Glens Falls, NY 12803

09/11/2026

Until the last turtle tucks in for a good winter's sleep, there's a good chance they will be crossing the roads (or sitting on the warm asphalt) any time the end-of-summer sun shines. Tay was found on the road after being hit by a vehicle. Her finder is a fellow wildlife rehabilitator and knew exactly what to do. She put her in a plastic tote she always has with her and got her into care.

We got Tay cleaned up and noted her injuries didn't appear life threatening. The fractures, however, were splintered and dislocated. We determined she would have the best chance of healing well if the fractures were set under anesthesia, so she is on her way to Janet L. Swanson Wildlife Hospital and into the hands of the amazing vets and vet students there.

Send good wishes for Tay. We are looking forward to her return and recovery.

09/07/2026

This is (probably) our last release video of the year. Cecelia arrived for care in the spring after a thankfully minor run-in with a car. She had some very caring people looking out for her as they had for the past few years and she was quickly contained and brought to us. Now her shell is well healed and she just has to fix her algae coat where we took it off for the shell repair and bandaging.

Cecelia laid her eggs while she was with us, so we incubated them and her finders were happy to help us release them into a good muddy part of the beaver pond where there was lots of vegetation to hide in.

The beautiful habitat Cecelia calls home was created by a family of beavers. Her finders were happy with all the wildlife they get to see now. Beaver-created wetlands are known for their biodiversity. We're very grateful to the beavers on behalf of the turtles and all the others who get to live there.

Good luck out there, Cecelia. We hope to hear that you've returned to lay eggs again next spring.

09/07/2026

We named her Edith (we were up to letter E in our alphabetical naming scheme) but our rehabbers affectionately call her Tumbleweed. This painted turtle was climbing out of a ditch onto the shoulder of a road to lay her eggs when a truck whizzed by and the draft blew her backwards. When she fell back into the ditch she must have landed on a sharp rock because a piece of her shell broke off, leaving a hole. Luckily for this seemingly unlucky turtle, the people driving behind the truck saw her tumble and stopped to help.

As more luck would have it, someone who had previously brought an injured turtle to Kay, a rehabber and one of our board members, happened to drive by as Edith's finders were standing by the side of the road with her. She called Kay and offered to transport her right away. Kay immediately went to work stabilizing her and discovered another lucky thing.

Inside a turtle's shell, a protective membrane called the coelom surrounds the organs. Often when a turtle's shell breaks the coelom is also broken, letting dirt and germs into the body cavity and increasing the risk of organ damage and infection. But Edith was lucky and her coelom was somehow intact. The only problem was the missing shell piece, which is very significant, don't get us wrong, but not as immediately life threatening as it would have been if the coelom broke.

Kay transferred Edith to Debbie, who had space for a longer term patient. Debbie has been researching and consulting with a vet who is very experienced in reptile wound care for the best way to dress the wound to support new skin and shell growth. After a few weeks Edith was induced to lay the eggs she was carrying but they don't appear to have developed in the incubator, unfortunately.

We don't know when or if Edith's hole will fill in completely, but we are doing everything we can to get her there, no matter how long it takes. We are anticipating she will be with us for at least two years, but we hope to get this young turtle mom back to the wild for another chance at laying eggs. Maybe she'll have better luck next time.

We are very grateful for our supporters who make long-term care for Edith and other turtles possible.

09/06/2026

We learned a couple of things this year: that we are terrible at sexing snakes just by looking at them 🤷🏼‍♀️ and that there is no amount of baby snakes that is too many baby snakes.

Garter snakes are viviparous, which means that rather than laying eggs they give birth to live young. And they do it without the belly bulge. Female garter snakes do grow larger than males, though, which gives them more room for babies. We thought our patient was male because she was fairly petite and slender, so likely a young female with growing to do. If the number of worms she's eating is any indication, she's trying to speed up the growing process. Sorry, ma'am, for our mistake.

These babies were born hungry and ate two good meals of worm pieces before their release. Their new home is at the edge of a wetland in a park near where their mom was found. They will have lots of good places to hide and plenty of little worms and other bugs to eat while they grow.

Be well, surprise baby snakes!

09/06/2026

Sometimes we get to the water a turtle came out of before being hit by a car and wish we could release her somewhere else. But turtles know their homes and turtle populations depend on mature females to keep going, so we try not to relocate. We were hesitant to release Xena here, but she must have recognized the smell of the water because she was trying to get out of the tub before we opened the lid.

We need clean water, not just for turtles but for all life. There are lots of great groups out there protecting and restoring wetlands and waterways, but so much more needs to be done. We wish we could fix it all, but we have to satisfy ourselves with trying to fix turtles and hope more of us humans get to work cleaning up our waterways.

Thankfully, Xena didn't have to swim very far to get to somewhat better habitat that just wasn't accessible to us by land. We were glad to see her head in that direction. Be well out there, Xena!

09/05/2026

The milk snakes from our first time hatching snake eggs in our incubator have gone home. They were released near where the nest was dug up, because we figured mama snake knew what she was doing when she picked that spot. Although some were a bit reluctant to leave the cozy moss, they all eventually made their way into the leaf litter, where they'll eat bugs until they are bigger. Good luck, little snakes! Thanks to your kind for helping keep the rodent population in control.