An investigation began  on a junior high science teacher, Robert Crosland, after he allegedly fed a puppy to a snapping turtle in front of his students in Preston, Idaho on March 7th after school hours.

The turtle is just one of a few animals he keeps in his class according to the Salt Lake City Station.

A former student told East Idaho News that he was known to feed guinea pigs to snakes and snapping turtles during class demonstrations.

Supposably the puppy was reportedly sick and going to die, but is this an excuse?

Local animal activist, Jill Parish who filed a police report against Crosland, thinks that he is the sick one.

“Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not okay.” Parish told the station.

Preston School District 201 Superintendent Marc Gee seemed to have no problem with the issue. According to Huffingtonpost, Gee called the incident “a regrettable circumstance,” and noted in a press release that the event occured well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school-directed program.

He also said in the press release, “We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised.”

Many students think that he was a cool teacher who really brought science to life. All the kids loved his class because of the animals, according to Huffington Post. Since many kids think that he’s a great teacher and reports it to their parents, there was an argument on not to fire him for the horrible act.

One of the student’s parents, Annette Salvesen said “If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway, Crosland is very much circle of life.”

According to Franklin County Sheriff David Fryar, they are investigating the facts and turning it over to the prosecutor.

“He’s the one who will determine if the law was broken.”

The penalty for animal cruelty is a misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000 and/or imprisonment up to one year according to Animal Cruelty Laws State by State. Even though this is animal cruelty, Crosland is not yet charged with any crime.

According to Fox61, a mother of two of the three boys in the classroom when the feeding happened told the Preston Citizen that the story has been blown out of proportion.

“If anyone has a right to be upset, it is me,” Farahlyn Hansen told the paper. “I am not upset. I felt like it was the more humane thing for Robert to do than to just leave it (the puppy) to die…The puppy was dying.”

Allegedly,  Crosland couldn’t get the puppy to eat or drink, McKay said, and was beyond saving. The person who brought it in knew it needed to be put down. Crosland put the puppy into the snapping turtle’s tank, where it drowned and was eaten, according to McKay.

Many other students as well as their families agree that Crosland did nothing wrong. In fact there’s a petition at the school called, “We Support Crosland,” which has received about 3,000 signatures. There are also online petitions calling for Crosland to be fired and has over 90,000 signatures.

The turtle was seized by the Idaho Department of Agriculture and “humanely” euthanized Wednesday, according to NYPost. The department, which enforces provisions of the Invasive Species Act, said the doomed turtle was put down for being a non-native species that required a permit.

People on twitter were confused as to why the turtle got punished but not Crosland.

“I guess I don’t understand why they had to kill the turtle. We humans are reckless. We screw up and we punish nature for our mistakes. It’s ridiculous.” said twitter user @CMRyan48.

As of earlier this week Crosland remains in his classroom, pending the results of the district’s investigation, according to the Associated Press.