Slow and Steady Showdown: Turtle Race Promises Shellebrity Showdown

Thirteen turtles and tortoises are set to compete this Sunday morning in Earthlings.NYC ’s second annual turtle race on W54th Street.

Eight heats are scheduled for this slow-paced competition held at 10 am at the nonprofit and grassroots coworking collective Prime Produce (W 54th St bw 9/10th Ave). At the race, turtles and tortoises from across the city walk across a walled-off pathway.

“People try to incentivize the turtles to come to the other side of the track by holding food,” said Jerone Hsu, Prime Produce co-founder and the event’s organizer.

“But it’s unclear what gets the turtles to really go,” he added. “Some of them don’t move, some of them get turned around. It’s all for fun and games.”

Proceeds from the event will go towards the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society, as well as a project to turn Prime Produce’s rooftop garden into a native pollinators field and turtle sanctuary.

Earthlings.NYC itself is home to over 5 turtles. One of the participants in Sunday’s festivities will be Weird Al, a rescue red-eared slider turtle who, according to Jerone, was kept for over 20 years in a “windowless bathroom being fed all the wrong things.”

“He ended up being very badly deformed because he’s malnourished,” Jerone said. “He’s a miracle turtle and a really good living cautionary tale for what bad turtle husbandry looks like.”

Another rescue turtle, Michelle, also a red-eared slider, was discovered in a black garbage bag in Sunset Park, Brooklyn with a sibling, said Jerone.

Don’t let their slow reputation fool you; many turtle species are in fact quite fast when they need to be, Jerone said. In the wild, Weird Al and Michelle would be fierce predators, chasing down fish.

Throughout the year, Earthlings.NYC hosts public “turtle team” hours, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 5 to 6pm when volunteers of all ages help care for and observe their turtles.

Jerone has lived with turtles on-and-off since childhood. He currently lives with Hanunah, a rescued sulcata tortoise, who will also be participating in Sunday’s competition.

Earthlings.NYC’s goal is to reconnect New Yorkers, deep within the city’s urban jungle, with the natural world around them, said Jerone, who is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in New York State.

That means “helping people really understand more about our ecological web and develop an appreciation for organisms that they maybe haven’t thought about,” Jerone said. Beyond turtles, Earthlings.NYC also hosts and rents “beetle boxes,” which are low-stakes first time pets.

The annual turtle race isn’t the only time the reptiles take center stage in Hell’s Kitchen. Last New Years, creatives at Prime Produce rang in 2024 under the multicolored lights of a cosmic turtle .

Multiple turtles reached were not immediately responsive to W42ST’s requests for comment, however they were amenable to being photographed.

Tickets for the Turtle Race on Sunday, July 21 at 10am, as well as betting tokens and shirts, can be purchased online at Earthlings.NYC

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