THE severe winter just experienced has extremely serious consequences for many people's pet tortoises. A great many have died, and thousands more are at risk when they awake.

It is vitally important that owners check their animals immediately.

The most frequent problem is a failure to emerge voluntarily from hibernation and subsequent disorientation and refusal to feed due to frost-induced blindness.

The Tortoise Trust has a special information pack available, free of charge, which we will gladly send to any concerned tortoise keeper on receipt of a medium-sized SAE.

JILL MARTIN, Tortoise Trust, BM Tortoise, London, WC1N 3XX.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.