“Charles Onegiu, who is attached to Ndew Police Post in Ndew sub-county, says he was in his grass-thatched hut sipping away on a cup of tea when the incident happened,” newvision.co.ug reports. “The tortoise crept in and when Onegiu tried to scare it off, the hard-shelled creature appeared unfazed, and instead turned aggressive. The policeman, who had just returned home after a long field day training crime preventers, tried to wave off his unwanted visitor. ‘I tried to scare it but the tortoise became very aggressive. I took a stick to chase it but it instead became more violent making me to make alarm . . .
“I immediately picked a plastic chair to hit it. It then got out of the hut and moved towards the latrine as people rushed to my rescue,” he told New Vision.
The swift-footed reptile (one of the fastest ever recorded at .000213 Miles Per Day) had ceased his vicious attack and was headed off (presumably to kill a lion instead), when the Ugandan Police Officer shot him in the back of his carapace.
The shaken Onegiu then instinctively reached for his firearm and shot the fleeing reptile dead.
“When it came out, I reached for my gun and shot it dead. It was a very big white tortoise. As I talk now, I am still scared because it is the first time I have seen such an incident happen in my life or heard of one,” he said.
TTAG reader PetitionforRedress (who emailed the link) is not impressed.
The swift-footed reptile (one of the fastest ever recorded at .000213 Miles Per Day) had ceased his vicious attack and was headed off (presumably to kill a lion instead), when the Ugandan Police Officer shot him in the back of his carapace. I wonder if this means that police in the US will begin to shoot turtles (out of an abundance of caution) in addition to the family dog.
That’s just being churlish, isn’t it?