Vietnam Veteran Shot Protecting Baby Sea Turtles

Veteran Suffers Gunshot Wound Protecting Baby Sea Turtles
Hero of the week.
Huffington Post
Hilary Hanson Editor
Posted: 07/20/2015

Pannaman and his friend and fellow volunteer, Doug Young, were out checking on sea turtle nests on a beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, at around 11 p.m. Friday, according to WSVN. Pannaman and Young were planning to wait for the turtles to hatch so they could help the baby animals get safely to the water. But a third individual reportedly had other ideas.

Pannaman told the Sentinel that an apparently intoxicated man approached them and began threatening the pair, saying: "I hate sea turtle people. You're all f---ing crazy.”

Young, president of the South Florida Audubon Society, told WPLG that the man, later identified as 38-year-old Michael McAuliffe, “got more aggressive” and started pulling up the wooden stakes that volunteers had placed around the nesting area to protect the turtles from passersby.

McAuliffe allegedly started coming at Pannaman, who served as a Marine and now uses a cane to walk. "That's when I pulled a handgun from the pocket of my shorts,” Pannaman told the Sentinel.
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