Edit: any comment on this post now seems to get removed instantly, sorry if your comment has been removed. Reddit is becoming more and more frustrating to use.

The following is just a vent I guess, as I am struggling to process what I did yesterday. And I seem to be the only one struggling.

I live with my family who love to get animals. In my opinion, they do not look after these animals and this is one of the reasons, I will not be getting pets when I leave home. My family have lost a few animals and I believe had they been looked after better, may have survived to a later age.

Essentially, having pet prey and predator animals together is fucking stupid and I will always tell people from now on based on the experience I had that what they are doing is risking the life of a pet uneccesarily.

In case you didn't know - dogs (no matter how good you think they are) will maul and kill a tortuousse given an opportunity. If you ever come across someone who has them both please warn them that the dog will maul the tortoise even if you don't expect it.

What I witnessed yesterday isn't even the first time our pet tortoise was harmed by a dog. Our old dog got a hold of him and it was me that caught him with it fortunately and rescued him. His shell was surgically fixed and he continued to live a normal life. In this situation my mom had left him out to roam the garden and my old dog instinctively tried to maul our tortoise. Fortunately, he survived and this was a nasty lesson I thought had been learned.

My parents since got two other guys after their old dog passed away. The tortoise wanted to go out so my mom put him in his outdoor enclosure in the garden while my dogs were resting near the gate and went to the toilet. I was working from home and heard my mom come out the bathroom and gasp as she looked out the window before running out into the garden. I then heard her cry and went outside. She was distraught and their tortoise was in a horrific state because the dogs had dug under the enclosure and took the tortoise to maul him. There were parts of his shell and blood in the grass. My mum couldn't cope with the situation and my dad basically didn't fucking care so I picked him up, put him in a shoe box and took him to the vets. To my surprise the nurse informed me that he was still alive but he wasn't going to pull through, so as advised I paid to euthanize him.

Since then I just cannot get over how cruel this whole experience has been. My mom has told me that she can't tell my sister who is currently living away and I have said I will tell her after the weekend as the tortoise was brought for her about 10 years ago. She said it may be a good idea to lie to her essentially so she doesn't understand the reality. I have told her I'm going to tell her the truth on what happened for 2 reasons.

1. This needs to be a lesson and I hope now as a family we can understand that dogs and tortoises do not get on. Lying to her will not teach this lesson and it could happen again even if it's 30-40 years down the road. Tortoises have longer life expectancies than humans so it is tragic to me that his life was cut so short, albeit dog attacks on tortoises being extremely common.

2. If she finds out in the future that this was a lie, she may struggle to believe other things she is told.

3. I also don't lie. Honesty is very virtuous to me and I don't consider it part of my character to deceive people.

Since it has happened, I am dealing with how vivid I remember having to pick him up and both my parents who didn't have to deal with it are fine!

I know I may be mad! But although I've not shown any signs of grief or tears, I am upset by this event and I didn't even see to much of the tortoise. I am also angry that he was in the same parameters as two dogs that could sniff him a mile out.

Again, no one may read this but I need to get it off of my chest as I am still processing it, and I hope by sharing this story, it can potentially save harm to an animal.