METAIRIE, La. — He made a run for it, from his owner’s backyard. But how far could a 100 lb. tortoise that’s the size of a “small coffee table” get?
Farther– faster– than you might think, as you can see in the above video.
“All he wants in life,” says owner Tricia Leblanc, “is a good salad, some sun and space.” And Leblanc is desperate to get him back.
The Humane Society of Louisiana is offering a $500 reward for the safe return of Leblanc’s African Spurred Tortoise, aka: “Major Tom.”
Major Tom (named for Leblanc’s “fondness for David Bowie”) has not contacted ground control since his escape on Monday. Leblanc says he was last spotted in the neighborhood near the intersection of Power Boulevard and West Esplanade (Veteran’s side).
Leblanc is afraid that some well-meaning person might try to get her “gentle giant” into water, in the assumption that that’s where Major Tom would like to be. Instead, Leblanc says Major Tom is “a land tortoise species, so he would not want to be put in a pond… he’d likely drown.”
Anyone who finds Major Tom should contact the Humane Society of Louisiana, https://humanela.org/