FOUNTAIN VALLEY : A Soft Spot for Some Hard-Shelled Friends

Turtle aficionado Walter Allen says people who keep the reptiles as pets often don’t know how to feed and care for them properly.

So the 68-year-old Fountain Valley resident, who owns 800 turtles and tortoises, their land-dwelling cousins, is opening his home to the public this weekend for educational tours and talks.

“That’s my whole purpose here,” said Allen, who built a menagerie for his beloved animals in 1978 on two city lots in his neighborhood. When visitors drop by, he said, “they’re so amazed at what they see.”

From the street, Allen’s Casa de Tortuga--Spanish for “turtle house”--looks like any other home on the block. Its inhabitants, however, include members of 150 turtle species from around the world. Allen, a retired oil industry executive, has six employees who help feed and care for his collection and maintain the turtle house.

Brett N. Scott, a Casa de Tortuga employee, said Allen is not prohibited by any city ordinance from keeping the aquatic and land reptiles in their indoor and outdoor ponds and pens. “It’s not a business,” Scott said. “If he had 10 barking dogs, it’d be a problem.”

Visitors this weekend will see animals of all types and sizes, from 2-ounce hatchlings to an endangered 450-pound Galapagos Island tortoise named Daphne who is 28 years old and could live to be 200. Allen’s favorite, she is one of the few who has a name. As Allen points out, “How could I name 800?”

Allen’s collection includes diamondback terrapins that are native to semi-salt marshes on the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts, as well as California desert and Sulcata tortoises and soft-shell turtles that have rubber-like coverings.

Allen also offers an adoption program, typically placing 50 to 60 animals a year. He refuses to sell to pet stores or to people he doesn’t know.

“Walter cares about turtles,” said Betty Caldarelli, a member of the Orange County chapter of the California Turtle and Tortoise Club and the Turtle and Tortoise Care Society. “He will take in sick or injured turtles and tortoises and take care of them, even if it means spending his money on veterinarian bills.”

Allen’s interest in turtles started in the 1960s as a hobby and has grown with the passing years. “I just fell in love with them,” he said. “They’re a pet that doesn’t make much noise, and they’re fairly easy to maintain. Some have a personality, some don’t.”

During tours from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, turtle experts will be on hand to answer questions and give talks on conservation and care. Information: (714) 962-0612.