A North Carolina Animal Rescue Group Is Using Old Bras to Save Injured Turtles

Do you have a pile of old bras sitting in a dust-gathering dresser drawer or forgotten bin in the back of your closet? They could save a turtle’s life.

Last week, a North Carolina animal rescue center posted on Facebook requesting that people donate bras—specifically, just the clasps on bras—for them to use in mending cracked turtle shells.

Here’s how it works: You glue the broken shell back together, then glue the bra clasps to either side of the crack, and then wind wire around the clasps to ensure that the shell is held in place. It's like setting a human bone, Jennifer Gordon, director of Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, told CNN. After the shell heals, the turtle is released back into the wild with nothing but a great story to tell.

Carolina Waterfowl Rescue provides aid to quite a few birds; according to its website, it helps over 1000 every year, covering nearly 40 different species. It also supports pigs, opossums, owls, and more.

Turtles, though, are especially susceptible to injury around this time of year, since they’re venturing beyond the safety of their normal wetlands habitats to lay their eggs along shorelines or to escape heavy rains. Also, warmer weather means more dogs, lawn mowers, and cars—perhaps the most dangerous foe of all.

According to CNN, CWR is a friend to all shapes and sizes of the beloved slow-and-steady reptiles, from 14-inch common snapping turtles to the much smaller eastern box turtle, which can fit in your hand.

Responses to the call for clasps have been so numerous that the rescue center has pledged to donate any still-usable bras to Common Heart, a nearby thrift store and food pantry, and they’re now asking for donations of $3 or $5 in lieu of sending the clasps themselves.