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Case ID: 18205
Classification: Mutilation/Torture
Animal: reptile
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Eastern Box Turtle impaled with 10 penny nail
Sag Harbor, NY (US)

Incident Date: Tuesday, Jul 5, 2011
County: Suffolk

Disposition: Open
Case Images: 2 files available

Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!

The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who drove a 10-penny nail through an eastern box turtle.

What happened to the eastern box turtle was so violent and so senselessly brutal it's enough to turn the stomach of an experienced advocate like Karen Testa.

"It's horrible, horrible that someone can do this to a living creature that cannot run away and defend itself at all," Testa said.

She's the turtle expert at the
The x-rays tell the story of the turtle's luck. The nail missed the spine and all major internal organs.

A vet removed the nail and sealed both shells with dental adhesive as the hunt begins for whoever tortured him.

"He was right over here," Patty Burns said.

It was Patty Burns and her daughter, Arlena, who found the turtle Tuesday in their Sag Harbor back yard, which they say has been the animal's makeshift home for over 15 years.

They see him every summer and can't imagine who would hurt him.

"I couldn't believe someone would do that to an animal," Arlena Burns said. "You see this little creature a couple times a year so it's like family, and oh my gosh. How could somebody actually do this?" Patty Burns said.

The family says that turtle rarely, if ever, strayed from their backyard in this secluded spot in the Hamptons, so the question is who tortured it and why?

Suffolk County SPCA chief Roy Gross is asking anyone with information to come forward. If you know anything, call the

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