The story is even more pathetic: Apparently he would have feeding demos for the class, feeding live critters to the turtle. This day his adult son brings in the puppy for the demo; obtained from "a farmer who said it was sick, dying and wouldn't eat". Note the "sick and dying" was the lynchpin of his successful legal defense, based on hearsay of some anonymous farmer who said so. No vets were involved or consulted. Further, he testified that they drowned the puppy before giving it to turtle Witnesses said he put live puppy in, it tried to swim away and turtle jumped it and held it under for a minute then chowed down. .Oh and the turtle was euthanized because it is classified as an invasive species and illegal in Idaho.