Legislators go reptilian

A Senate committee today approved a request to bestow official state reptile status on the Eastern Box Turtle.

Deborah Brehony, a Vienna woman who has been rehabilitating the turtles for 10 years, brought Rocky Bob, a months-old baby about 2-inches-long, to show the committee members what they were voting on.

Small, brown and the most populous turtle in Virginia, the Eastern Box represents “patience, humbleness and quiet optimism for our future,” Brehony told the committee.

“It’s a rather puny reptile,” said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg.

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, sponsored the bill for Brehony, who lives in his district. He said the measure will cost the state nothing. It will have to be approved by the full House and Senate.

-- Dave Forster

(PHOTO: A Senate committee approved a request to bestow official state reptile status on the Eastern Box Turtle. Rocky Bob is the smaller turtle pictured. (photo courtesy Deborah Brehony)

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