By raiding the home of Adrien S., the madman who had sown terror in a restaurant in Blanc-Mesnil with his saber and his submachine gun on July 19, the police found a small arsenal. And at the same time made an astonishing discovery: the caliber collector - who was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday, including 18 months suspended sentence - kept at home ... a protected turtle.
Under a sofa, the investigators of the judicial police of Seine-Saint-Denis, discovered the small animal, very badly in point. With a poor leaf of salad for sustenance, lying in the middle of his excrement.
The weapons were confiscated and the turtle was exfiltrated from this unfriendly place. A female officer was even moved by the fate of the animal. She did everything to find a new home for her protégé. "We could not leave this beast in these deplorable conditions," says a policeman, admiring the unwavering determination of his colleague.
The policewoman contacts the Vincennes zoo
The latter succeeds in extracting a judicial requisition to obtain a care of the animal by the zoo of Vincennes (Val-de-Marne). It was not easy. "It was necessary to justify that during the search, the turtle had been found in a miserable environment and that it was in danger", explains the police.
But it was necessary at all costs to save the tortoise of Blanc-Mesnil, whose scales of the carapace have lost their shine. The argument that will be decisive: its owner, left in detention, will no longer be able to feed it with salad leaves.
The policewoman is attached to the Vincennes zoo. The SDF turtle is examined by Olivier Marquis, a biologist specializing in reptiles and amphibians at the zoo. He identifies on a photo that it is a testudo graeca , aged 4 to 5 years, or Greek turtle, which is found around the Mediterranean and in the Balkans.
The turtle known to readers of Boule and Bill
It owes its classification to the Greek frieze design found on its shell. More prosaically, it is also known by readers of Boule and Bill. In the comics, Caroline is also a Greek turtle.
The one saved by the PC was renamed Emma. In 1984, the European Union banned its importation. “This identification made it possible to justify the seizure of the turtle. It is a protected species that requires regulatory authorization, says the scientist.
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Who specifies: “It is not particularly threatened but detention in a private individual requires specific arrangements, a terrarium, a certain heat, it is necessary to recreate an artificial hibernation. None of these conditions were met.
At the Vincennes zoo, "she was placed in quarantine for the time to perform a health check", specifies the biologist. The zoo vet was reassuring.
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