What the shell?
A beloved monster turtle considered one of the largest in the Urban Jungle has disappeared, and its legion of admirers fear the worst — that it was captured by cold-blooded poachers and sold for soup.
The massive, roughly 50-pound, two-foot-long by 15-inch-wide snapping turtle, known to admirers as “Shnappy,” and his nearly-as-large female companion vanished in early September from their decades-long digs in Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island, park officers and patrons told The Post.
City parks officers are investigating claims that a team of men captured the titan turtle and his muse with hooks overnight sometime before Sept. 11 under the cloak of darkness, wrapped the doomed beasts up in towels, carried them to their car, and sped off.
Some officers said they fear the turtles were likely flipped on the black market for big money to rogue restaurateurs and meat markets whose customers savor turtle meat — which is difficult to come by in the Empire State because it has among the nation’s strictest laws protecting reptiles and amphibians from being purchased or sold.
Longtime Shnappy watchers are devastated.
“They were fixtures in the park,” said Benjamin Nusser. “People are up in arms. . . . We grew up with these turtles.
“I feel terrible not only for the turtles but for the kids who won’t be able to enjoy them anymore.”
Shnappy — believed to be between 50 to 75 years old — earned a notorious reputation as a huge horndog. He was known to enjoy lusty and loud sex with his scaley sweetheart near his usual resting area by the lake’s dam, below a public walkway, fans said.
Sometimes the sex was so loud that it sounded like the “crack of baseballs repeatedly hitting a bat,” said Nusser, 62, recalling that Shnappy had a thing for nipping his lover’s shell.
“We’ve seen them mating, creating a lot of turbulence in the water; people would pull their cell phones out. It was a wonderful thing to watch,” he added.
Officers at the 200-acre public park off Clove Road said they’ve fielded a slew of complaints about smaller turtles, clams, fish, and other wildlife being poached in the past year.
Joe Puleo, president of Local 983 of District Council 37, which represents parks officers, said there are just too few of his members to cover the city’s 30,000 acres of parkland – and prevent such tragedies and other crimes. Only 18 of the city’s 316 parks officers and sergeants work on Staten Island.
He said he’s been lobbying City Hall to avoid more park officer jobs being lost due to budget cuts but in the meantime is demanding the Parks Department at least hang up signs in Clove Lakes Park saying poaching is illegal and carries a $1,000 fine.
Puleo and Local 983 Treasurer Marlena Giga said park patrons throughout the Big Apple typically complain to their members that they called 311 to report poaching of wildlife – only to have an operator send them on a wild goose chase and tell them to hang up to call 911 instead.
“The police are not going to investigate missing turtles like that’s an emergency,” said Puleo. “Maybe the city needs a pet detective like Ace Ventura.”
The vanishing is no laughing matter to Shnappy’s fans.
“It bothers me that someone might’ve brutalized them,” said Karen Newcombe. “Them turtles! They’ve been here for years!”
Both she and Nusser gasped at the thought that they might be murdered and served as turtle soup.
“It’s horrifying,” Nusser said. “I don’t know why someone could do something so depraved like that.”
Turtle soup was once widely popular in New York City during the 1800s, but few city restaurants now offer it as stringent documentation from suppliers is needed before purchasing. Some meat markets in Chinatown and other parts of the city still peddle turtle meat, but many do so illegally.
The longtime Louisiana soup delicacy — which features the namesake meat, along with dry sherry, hard-boiled eggs, Worcestershire sauce, and plenty of butter — can go for more than $12 a pop at fancy eateries across the world, including New Orleans’ mainstays Commander’s Palace and Brennan’s Restaurant.
Experts said a prodigious beast, such as Shnappy, could provide five or so pounds of meat — roughly enough for 30 bowls of soup.
“He’s definitely meaty,” observed Joe Lam, co-founder of JnW Reptile Rescue in Vallejo, Calif., after reviewing a photo of the butterball beast. “He’s a good size snapping turtle.”
Meanwhile, some blamed Bidenomics for the turtle tragedy.
“I really think the economy is really driving people to go out and get their own food or sell it for money,” said Giga of Local 983, who is also an avid animal lover. “This is really sad.”
