Snapping turtles

[jlp8cornell]

Has anyone here had a dog injured or know of injuries from snapping turtles? Curious as the pond my dog swims in has at least one now although he may be just passing through. Thanks for any input.

[Cajun Casey]

Never had a problem with snappers or sliders unless they roll in a dead one.

[Johng918]

You can always call the turtle man that's live action

[stlgsp]

A friend's Weim has a large V shaped notch out of his ear from an alligator snapping turtle they ran into along the MO river. The alligator snappers get big and mean but rarely see them around ponds. Never had a problem with the other types of water turtles we see around ponds.

[BigShooter]

We have snapping turtles all over MN in the rivers & 13,000+ lakes. I've seen 'em with necks 3" across & shells a good two & a half ft. in diameter. You never hear of them bothering man nor dogs swimming in the water. A curious dog messing with one out of the water could certainly get chomped on & snapping turtles generally don't let go.

[goldenpatch29]

We have them all over the place around here as well. There are several in the pond behind my house and about this time of year they travel from pond to pond to breed. I have seen them in the road, in my yard, and one even trying to get into my neighbors swimming pool. My grandpa used to go to some of the rivers and set hooks and even catch some by hand, like we do with the catfish. My dogs swim in our pond almost everyday and they have never had a encounter with one. But needless to say if they ever do get ahold of one, then I can promise you they will never do it again....hahahaha......on a side note, my grandpa used to say that once one got ahold of you then it wouldnt let go till it heard thunder and seen lightening....ha

[AzDoggin]

The snappers we had in Nebraska were always very spooky. I doubt if they'd let a dog mess with them. Hope not, because I had one once bend a 'daredevil' and eventually break the treble hook. I'd really hate to see what one of those suckers could do to a dog.

[Greg Jennings]

Never had trouble with one and a dog, though I can imagine it would happen if the dog got between the turtle and safety.

I hate snapping turtles. In my youth a friend and I spent a long afternoon catching bream on horse weed worms. We must have had 50. When we pulled up the stringer to show a friend that showed up, we didn't have anything but heads. After that, we hunted them with varmint rifles a'la ground hogs. Catch them where there was a safe back stop...a Sierra 85 grain hollow point boat pushed by about 36 grains of IMR-3031 would really put the red mist in the air....

[mcbosco]

At the farm I worked at until college I kept wire lines in the ponds with salt pork and blue fish hooks to keep the turtles risk down.

They were dangerous on land in the tall grass. Dogs & horses would routinely get nipped or grabbed. I don't recall any issues in the water but I imagine under the right circumstances they could be a hazard.

Once hooked there were guys at the track that cooked them up.

[Ruffshooter]

Dangle your toes in the water while you are fishing. I almost got it once, luckily I saw it coming up from below. That thing must have been 18" across the back. I once saw another in this back water bog. That thing was huge. Not really sure how big but looking at it laying on the bottom of the beaver dam in the water, it must have been 28 or so inches. maybe bigger.

[Buckeye_V]

They can actually move pretty good too.

We saw one in our side yard one night about 30 yards away from any edge of the yard. Pond was about 50 yards away. By the time we parked the truck, went inside and let the dogs out the thing was GONE. Not sure where it went and frankly don't care, but in a matter of 5 minutes it vamoosed.

[Sharon]

Many years ago I had a dog lose a toe to a snapping turtle. They think the toes are fish i guess.
The right to hunt snapping turtles ended this year in ON. They are on the endangered list.

[birddogger]

I used to jug fish for them, set bank lines and catch them crossing the road. I would clean them out and fry the meat. The whole family liked it. Some good eating stuff if you want to go to the trouble of getting the meat out of the shell and cutting it into manageable pieces [it can really be a pain in the you know what]. Some people make turtle soup but nothing is as good as fried!

Charlie

[snips]

One made a grab at my dog coming out of the water the other day, really freaked him out.

[osogrande]

Found this huge one the other morning I guess electrocuted by the hot wire fence (you can see the pig tail of the wire sticking right in his shoulder). Never seen that before, but it sure made me wonder about swimming in the pond again.

[goldenpatch29]

I used to jug fish for them, set bank lines and catch them crossing the road. I would clean them out and fry the meat. The whole family liked it. Some good eating stuff if you want to go to the trouble of getting the meat out of the shell and cutting it into manageable pieces [it can really be a pain in the you know what]. Some people make turtle soup but nothing is as good as fried!

Charlie

We try to make some turtle stew every year around fall....its some of the best stew I have every tasted, but I am a lil partial...

[tommyboy72]

Turtle soup tonight PaPa!!!!!!!!