As you'll notice, the turtle posted above has its head intact -- as in, not blown to pieces by some trigger-happy person with a firearm and free time. But if you click through below, you'll see a picture of a less-lucky critter that's currently making the rounds online. So, uh, like NSFW, if you work around a lot of turtle lovers.
The picture was posted eight hours ago and since has snowballed on Reddit into a flash-point of pro-animal outrage -- right now, it's blowing up the charts and drawing a lot of angry commenters.
The original poster IDs the woman behind the turtle gore as a proud citizen of the Sunshine State. Which makes complete sense. Here in Florida, we've got a troubling history of using social media to showcase violence against the animal kingdom.
The most famous case of viral animal hate, of course, involved two Cocoa Beach bros who were sentenced last week. Taylor Blake Martin, and Seth Andrew Stephenson became internet villains when they filmed themselves cannonballing onto a manatee last year. The vid went big online, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arrested the pair following the incident. Last week, they were ordered to pay $5,000 in fines as well as each perform 175 hours of community service.
And sure, blowing out the brains of a cute turtle isn't exactly the same level as harassing an endangered species, but what the hell is wrong with people here? This seems to be a legit Florida sensation -- let's screw with animals and post the evidence online. From the family cat to rabbits.
Why are Floridians doing mean things to animals? Maybe it's because we're just outside more, so we're more likely to interact with animals, ergo fuck with them up and get it on film. Maybe we're all sun-stroked beyond human dignity. Maybe humans have always had a mean streak for animals and now we can snap pics thanks to tech advances. Whatever the reason, it's more and more of a thing right now.
The turtle gore is not going down well with most folks. Commenters online are are pretty upset.
"[L]eave the fucking turtles alone you fucking asshole," opined one commenter. "It's fucked up but the least she could do is make soup or whatever from it," fired off another. "What a power trip. 'I have this gun and I need to use it.'"
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