8 Year Old Watches Donated Pet Getting Eaten Alive

Rest in peace, good buddy

Eight year old Colton Guthrie of Pensacola decided to donate his pet turtle to a better place after it outgrew his home aquarium. He and his family decided on the Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach, which was close enough to their home to allow for regular visits between the boy and his pet.

But on the day of the turtle’s release into his new ecosystem, things went very wrong.

As the family stood watching helpless, an alligator sidled up behind the red eyed slider turtle in his new home and attacked, gulping the new resident down as the little boy screamed in horror.

Even turning away from the sight offered little respite, said Brenda Coulter, the boy’s mother, as they could still hear the horrible crunching of jaws on shell.

Zoo officials expressed bafflement at the incident, saying that alligators don’t usually eat red eyed sliders.