A horrific video showing two beachgoers torturing a shark on a beach in Florida has sparked outrage on social media.
Gruesome video footage of the disturbing incident was shared on Instagram by Emmy-winning journalist Louis Aguirre and has since garnered over 130,000 views.
"You Should Not be Doing That"
"The worst of humanity on full display folks. I am speechless... this is the world we live in. Very sad there are those who take pleasure in watching another living creature suffer so," Aguirre wrote in the caption.
The clip shows the two men, who have not yet been identified, dragging a black-tip shark out on a beach in New Smyrna Beach, FL., while a woman filming them urges them to return the creature back to the ocean. It is not yet known whether the shark was pulled out of the water or was beached.
"Can you please put it back?" the woman is heard saying. "You should not be doing that with animals." The men continue to drag the creature towards the beach as it thrashes around. One of the men then pulls out a knife.
"Please do not do anything to it," the woman pleads as the men argue that it's a "legal harvest" and ask her to look up "FWC," which stands for Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
'This is Natural'
The man holding the knife then stabs the shark in the head as the woman is heard asking them to stop.
"Why are you doing that?" she says, to which one of the men replies, "This is natural."
The woman asks, "Are you enjoying this?"
"Nah, I'm taking it to eat and feed my family," the man responds.
The clip ends with the man attempting to slice the shark's head open. (The following video is graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised)
Social Media Reactions
Although a black-tip shark species falls under the harvestable sharks category according to the FWC website, the video has drawn the ire of social media users.
"A healthy ocean needs a healthy shark population. If the sharks die, the oceans die. Plain and simple. We need more shark awareness and education, and better laws to protect our sharks, "Aguirre added.
"Cowards. They wouldn't try that if it was in the water," wrote one user, while someone else commented "This is absolutely disgusting and difficult to watch. Monsters."
"Cant watch this! This is so disgusting!!! Needs to go on the news and someone needs to identify these people!" opined another user.
