--- title: Florida Man Caught Killing and Eating Tortoises description: The Florida Wildlife Commission says a man has been killing and eating threatened tortoises. canonical: https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-29T20:03:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:53.194Z og:title: A Florida Man Has Been Killing and Eating Tortoises og:description: Wildlife authorities say og:url: https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc15277d6cc09780/6986a18706f2c159d333082c/tortoise1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: tortoise og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Florida Man Has Been Killing and Eating Tortoises twitter:description: Wildlife authorities say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc15277d6cc09780/6986a18706f2c159d333082c/tortoise1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Florida Man Says He Ate 15 Threatened Tortoises and Planned to Eat 11 More  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 29, 2014 8:03 PM UTC  A gopher tortoise. A gopher tortoise.Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute—Reuters  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 29, 2014 8:03 PM UTC Wildlife authorities say a Florida man confessed to killing gopher tortoises, a threatened species, for their meat. [On Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/MyFWC/photos/a.325218788348.151761.90492003348/10152628791798349/?type=1), The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wrote that a member of the public tipped them off to tortoise shells that were being dumped in the woods in Citrus County, north of Tampa. Officer Thomas Reid went to the woods and found a container with 11 live tortoises. He stayed there until the man showed up, confronting him when he started to move the reptiles into a truck. “The man told Reid that he had killed 15 gopher tortoises and dumped the shells in the woods and that he had caught the 11 that were in the container and was planning on eating them,” according to the Facebook post. The officer freed the 11 reptiles. No word on whether the man was making turtle soup. (h/t [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/us-usa-florida-tortoises-idUSKBN0GS2DB20140828) via [WFTS Tampa Bay](http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-citrus-hernando/citrus-county-man-accused-of-catching-and-eating-tortoises)) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/"},"headline":"Florida Man Says He Ate 15 Threatened Tortoises and Planned to Eat 11 More","datePublished":"2014-08-29T20:03:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:53.194Z","description":"An officer found him in the woods, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission","url":"https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Florida"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc15277d6cc09780/6986a18706f2c159d333082c/tortoise1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc15277d6cc09780/6986a18706f2c159d333082c/tortoise1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"tortoise","caption":"A gopher tortoise.","creditText":"Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3223022/florida-man-ate-threatened-tortoises/","name":"Florida Man Says He Ate 15 Threatened Tortoises and Planned to Eat 11 More"}}]}] ```