>>40724233
I forgot you're an island, so technically they are sea turtles around England. but england hasn't had any native pond turtles since 8 thousand years ago according to google, they went extinct for whatever reason. so I guess these pets are kind of bringing that back to ecosystem. And you're correct, it was the cartoon ninja turtles in the 90s that made turtles a popular pet here and there. especially sliders which are native where I live, and there are some in the pond 100 yards away from me right now. people released them and they started to breed and survive. people are spotting them still according to the comments on this vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIv8ZKxGCUY

non native species, whether plant, animal, bug can do very well in foreign places because the other plants, bugs, animals there are not used to eating them, so they just go unbothered.