Huge Sea Turtle Shot to Death
The bullet-riddled carcass of a female leatherback turtle, weighing 1,000 pounds and spanning seven feet, washed ashore at Laguna Beach, officials said today. The mammoth animal was shot in the back--apparently with a semiautomatic weapon--six to eight times.
A representative from the National Marine Fisheries was participating in a necropsy today. The turtle was at least 70 years old. It was unknown if she was bearing eggs. It is breeding season for the turtles, which live off the coast of Mexico and Central America.
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