Country singer Blake Shelton is causing quite a stir on Twitter and with animal supporters, after tweeting a joke about running over a turtle on purpose. Here’s the deal.
On July 27 Shelton tweeted, “Does anyone know if the Eastern Box turtle is protected in Oklahoma? If so I didn’t just swerve to the shoulder of the road to smash one…”
Before the singer knew what hit him, a Twitter war commenced. Shelton received quite a bit of nasty, and even some light hearted, responses.
NPR blogger Barbara J. King reached out to Shelton and tweeted, “That turtle’s life meant something- was your tweet a bad joke? Why would you be so cruel to a living being?” Shelton answered by simply saying, “Shut up…”
Even Ellen DeGeneres had some words, “@BlakeShelton Here’s what’s funny: knock-knock jokes. Here’s what’s not funny: animal cruelty.”
“For god sakes… Now Ellen?!!,” Shelton tweeted today.
He made sure to clear up “Turtle-Gate,” as he cleverly dubbed the fiasco through several tweets.
“The best part of all of this is that the dumb asses didn’t even look to see that I’m not even in Oklahoma today!! I’m in North Dakota!! Do they even have turtles in North Dakota?!!!
Later on today he added, “Can you imagine what this world would be like if people spent this much time worrying about people. I assure you NO turtles heard my joke..”
Not only does this come as a shock to some people, mainly because animal cruelty isn’t a joke, but probably because Shelton and his wife, Miranda Lambert, are known for rescuing abandoned dogs and donating money to animals in need.
He repeatedly is assuring no actual turtle was hurt and that he has a “screwed up” sense of humor, but at the same time thanking his fans for their support and really making no true apology.
Do you think people are overreacting and should cut Shelton some slack?
Photo Credit: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com