Two South Carolina men were charged with misdemeanors after social media posts showed them forcing a baby alligator to drink beer and inhale smoke.
Joseph Andrew Floyd, Jr., 20, and Zachary Lloyd Brown, 21, were charged with harassing wildlife after investigators were notified that the men had posted photos on Snapchat and Facebook of themselves handling the alligator, according to UPI.
The photos showed the men holding the 18- to 20-inch alligator by the throat and pouring beer shotgun style into its mouth. They also blew smoke into the animal’s face, UPI reported. Floyd admitted to investigators that they found the alligator trying to cross the road and that they released it into a pond after their exploits, and it swam away.
"Alligators are protected under state law and even federal law where they are still listed as threatened solely due to their similarity of appearance to other endangered crocodilians worldwide," said Jay Butfiloski, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Alligator Program Coordinator, CNN reported.
After seeing the photos on social media, people became angry and contacted the SCDNR, some sending screen shots of the posts. One woman who knew the men posted on Facebook that they should be ashamed about their actions. "It almost brought me to tears," she posted, saying that the men were "just being plain cruel . … It literally made me sick to my stomach," the Charlotte Observer reported.
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