Is It Legal to Own a Red-Footed Tortoise? State Guide

Nothing on the exotic pet law map bans the red-footed tortoise. Across all 52 jurisdictions there is no outright prohibition anywhere, which puts it in a small group among reptiles. What it collects instead is conditions, and several of them catch it for reasons that have nothing to do with this species at all.

Where Red-Footed Tortoises Stand

New York City Measures the Shell, Not the Animal

New York City's reptile clause ends with a size test: all turtles and tortoises with a carapace length of less than four inches are prohibited. Nothing in it names a species.

That four inch figure is not arbitrary and it is not a New York invention. It matches the federal small turtle rule at 21 CFR 1240.62, published in May 1975, which bars the sale or commercial distribution of live turtles with a carapace under four inches and of viable turtle eggs. The reasoning was salmonella: at the height of the pre-ban trade an estimated 280,000 US salmonella cases a year were attributed to contact with small turtles, and the four inch line is a proxy for the animal a small child can put in their mouth. New York City applies that measurement to possession rather than only to sale.

The practical result is odd for this species. A red-footed tortoise hatchling is inside the prohibition. The identical animal two years later, once the shell has passed four inches, is not. It is the only rule in this article where the answer changes as the animal grows.

Minnesota Put Turtles in a Different Filing Cabinet

Minnesota's 2021 pet reptile rule covers snakes, lizards and salamanders, and stops there. Turtles were left out of it, which means they stayed under their own older regime at § 97C.605 rather than moving across with everything else.

That is worth knowing because a keeper reading Minnesota's reptile rules will find the familiar § 97A.401 language that governs the bearded dragon and every other lizard, and will not find their tortoise in it. The answer exists, it is simply in a different section, and the two do not cross-reference each other in a way that makes this obvious.

Vermont Lists It Under a Name It No Longer Has

Vermont clears the species on its Unrestricted list, but under Geochelone carbonaria. The current binomial is Chelonoidis carbonarius, the genus having been revised.

Anyone checking the Vermont list by searching for the current name will not find the animal, and might conclude it is absent and therefore restricted, which is how Vermont treats anything unlisted. It is listed. It is listed under a synonym.

The clearance carries the state's captive bred only condition, which requires a statement of origin. That is the substantive requirement, and it is the same condition that governs most of Vermont's cleared reptiles.

Hawaii Cleared the Family

Hawaii's conditional approval covers family Testudinidae, which takes the red-footed tortoise in as a member rather than naming it. That is the opposite situation from the sulcata, which moved out of Geochelone into the unlisted genus Centrochelys and left its own status hanging on a taxonomy change.

The same revision that made Vermont's entry out of date is the one that could have stranded this species in Hawaii, and did not, because Hawaii wrote at family rank.

West Virginia Regulates the Shipment, Not the Species

West Virginia never named the red-footed tortoise, and the rule that reaches it is not on any species list. W. Va. Code § 20-2-13 says that "no person shall transport into or have in his possession within this state any live wildlife or viable eggs thereof from without the state, except as authorized by an importation permit issued by the director." Wildlife is defined in § 20-1-2 as wild birds, wild animals, game and fur-bearing animals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks and crustaceans, and the reptile and amphibian clause carries no nativity qualifier and no captive-bred exception. A red-footed tortoise shipped in from a breeder is therefore live wildlife from without the state.

The argument that an out-of-state animal sits outside the chapter is closed before it can be made: § 20-2-4(b) says wildlife lawfully taken outside of this state is subject to the same laws and rules as wildlife taken within it. What is missing is the other half. No rule in Title 58 implements § 20-2-13 outside aquaculture, the Division of Natural Resources publishes no application for an importation permit, and the only penalty the section spells out is written for coyotes. The requirement is clear on the page and invisible in practice, which is the honest thing to tell someone crossing the state line with a tank in the car. It fits the pattern the rest of this guide describes: the conditions this tortoise collects are almost never about this tortoise.

What to Check Before Buying

A red-footed tortoise can live fifty years and outlast the rules you bought it under, and hatchling size is a live issue in at least one jurisdiction. The full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction detail, with the rule text and the date each entry was verified, is on the red-footed tortoise page of the exotic pet law map.

Sources & Further Reading