Express & Star

Turtle shock for angler

It grows to the size of a dustbin lid, will eat anything in its path and is normally found in the Mississippi River in the USA.

Published

It grows to the size of a dustbin lid, will eat anything in its path and is normally found in the Mississippi River in the USA.

But a Black Country angler has fished an alligator snapping turtle from the lake in Sandwell Valley.

The creature, which resembles a dinosaur with its spiked shell and snapping jaw, is now being kept in Oldbury by Stephen Rowlands, along with another one, fished out of the canal at Broad Street in Birmingham.

Mr Rowlands said: "People get them as pets and when they see how big they grow and how long they live they dump them. They are everywhere, we get all sorts of calls around the country. We have these two now which we are keeping in our heated pools."

He added: "The first one we got was in the canal, someone spotted it swimming along around all the boats and called the RSPCAs.

"Then we were called to Sandwell Valley, someone was fishing in the lake there and caught the turtle on his rod — he must have had a shock."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.