Do you remember some of those stores painted the shell, they say it would eventually kill the turtle.
I don't ever recall that in the stores around us, but sorta recall is being a "thing" some people did for a while. Of course, it makes sense to not do that. Those poor things, can't run fast enough to get away from stupid.
I remember during our trip to north Borneo that we went out to an island that was a turtle sanctuary. During the night we went down to the beach and watched a turtle as she laid her eggs - I think she laid about 95 eggs. The park rangers then took the eggs to a hatchery where they were safe from predators. We also got to see when they released newly hatched turtles into the sea. Only about one percent of sea turtles survives to maturity due to predators eating eggs and hatchlings but by protecting them in hatcheries the survival rate is increased.
Oh and in case you’re wondering how I managed to and from the boat to the island and to and from the beach, my husband carried me
"The band, the Turtles, which formed in Los Angeles, was originally called the Crossfires. But like many American bands in the '60s, they wanted to be associated with the highly successful British Invasion groups. To emulate the creatively-spelled animal band names like the Beatles and the Byrds, they called themselves the Tyrtles. The record company thought that was a bit too cute and told them to switch to the conventional spelling".
I finally cut down some bushes that had no business being where they were, and I still have the remnants I believe are gonna require the backhoe to dig up. I knew there were rabbits under there, but I got 51 acres they can relocate to. I didn't see this guy until I came home from shopping today: I don't know if that was his home under there, or if was attracted because I cut away most of the shrubbery. I was belly-crawling under the bushes for a while trying to thread a tractor chain around them, so I could pull the greenery to one side and cut off the large stalks with a chain saw. I pulled to one side and sawed, then drove the tractor to the other side, pulled and sawed. I had a good view all around the base, so I'm sure he was not there yesterday afternoon. I don't see many of these around, which is a good thing, because I don't need to worry about accidents with my tractor. If he's still hanging around tomorrow, I'll carry him to the side of the property that has a creek. They sure are pretty.
That's a box turtle, hard to find today I used to have them on my property also. Great to see there still in existence somewhere. I was giving one of them that lives in the greenhouse for many years the owner was moving so he gave it to me. He loved to eat greens, I made him an outdoor pen so he could get exercise.
I looked at a property on 96 acres when I was shopping for a house in 2010. The house had been built in the 1700s, and beavers had created swampland of much of the land. As I was driving the property with the real estate agent, I must have had him stop 5 or 6 times for me to get out and move the turtles that were in our path. We had them in our place right outside of DC in the early 60s, but as you said, they're becoming scarcer. I guess the upside to having overcrowded areas is that the rest of the state/country can stay somewhat rural. Regarding rescuing critters: the only wild critter I took in was a praying mantis that was about ready to freeze to death. I had a lot of large floor plants that he would fly back & forth on as I watched TV, and I bought him crickets from the pet store and, uh, "disabled" them so they couldn't hop away and keep me up all night. Then one day he just kinda disappeared.