The Riding Turtle is obtained by finding a rare Saltwater Snapjaw "Loot Card" in the WoW collectible trading card game from Upper Deck Entertainment. The card has a scratch-off code which is used to obtain the item. A given code only gets you one turtle on one character on one server, so you do not get it on all your characters (unlike the collector's edition pets). The riding turtle is simply for looks. While mounted on the turtle you move at normal running speed, though you are actually mounted so effects that affect run speed do not operate but effects that affect mount speed do.