This is not based on facts, just my thoughts on the subject...I am thinking that turtles could be considered wild game, and in the state of Indiana, wild game belongs to the people of the state. It is illegal to sell wild game. I've mostly seen this applied to deer, and a local butcher shop got in trouble a few years back for selling deer sausage.

I always thought that fish and animals fell into 2 separate categories. You can fish in your private pond without a license because those fish belong to you. You can't fish in a public lake without a license becase those fish belong to the state.

You can't hunt, even on private property, without a license because those animals roam from place to place and were not put there by you.

It seems to me that turtles would fall into the licensed arena and be illegal to sell.