ornates dont stand a chance

Hope you teach your kids to leave the turtle alone, especially a wild caught one. They don't want humans handling them! Why are you keeping a WC turtle a prisoner anyway? Wild turtles should be left in the wild unless they are injured or their habitat is being destroyed. See these links for good care info.
http://gctts.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Public/BoxTurtleCare
http://gctts.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Public/BoxTurtleDiet

I think that you are entitled to your opinion, but I think that it is my judgement call as a parent. I try to teach my children the value of coservation and one way of doing so is hands on experience. I know that there are some people who are short sighted and dont see the value of this way of learning and I have to accept that fact, but a far as having someone question my judgement I think you should keep you short sided opinions to yourself. We have since released the turtle unharmed and we also washed our hands thoroughly after handling the animal. If I was you I would take a walk in the wilderness and take a good long look around and maybe even you will learn something. In my own humble opinion, Denzil Short

i have to agree with bluekat. People that grow up with animals, want to work and help animals when they grow up. Im only 14 and i started with frogs and now i have TONS of reptiles and want to be a pro reptile breeder when i grow up, and my nefew is upsessed with blueys because i let him hold mine.

You should have stated that you weren't going to keep it. I don't see a problem holding something maybe a short while for study. Me (and many others) object to people taking turtles from the wild to keep because many species population numbers are dropping in the wild. Many rescue and rehab organizations and breeders are out there where people can obtain a turtle to keep. The GCTTS almost always has box turtles for adoption by members in the Houston area or if someone out of area wants to pick one of them up. If someone isn't a member they can join. Box turtles, if released again, also need to be put back into the same territory you took it from. Putting them into another territory strange to them may cause them to wander trying to find their home territory thus causing them to get onto roads. Read the Mckeever study. You don't have to think I'm a nut that dreamed this up. http://www.mckeever.org/turtle.html

Oh, and as far as me doubting your judgement as a parent, without talking to you more, I assume the worst I guess. Being a wildlife rehabilitator for over 12 years I've run across so many parents that didn't have common sense pertaining to their kids and animals. Many parents let there kids do whatever they want with animals and they also do things without finding out if what that are doing is OK first. Most people are ignorant when if comes to turtles. (I use the word ignorant as meaning not knowing.) I know this because I've ended up with many of the poor creatures these people have tried keeping as pets. People need to read first then get a pet. Sooo this is why I'm quick to get on to people. Sorry that I assumed you were one of these people but don't blame someone for thinking something when you don't include more of an explanation on what you are doing.

Nice pic, I see Anitas point on not keeping wild animals because I had to learn the hard way when I was about dallas age....but Anita just for future pointers, don't jump on peoples cases so quick because it tends to get bad reactions. Espeacially when the person didn't do anything wrong and simply had the turtle for a short period of time. I'm sure that dallas or his dad arn't out to hurt any of our native wildlife.