Decomposing sloth

So I was eating a breakfast burrito when Joe@GhostTheory decided to forward me this story. Needless to say, I threw away my burrito and opted to get some mineral water or something to help me from not throwing up.

The images are from a decomposing sloth that was beaten and drowned. In Panama, a few teens decided it would be fun to kill this poor creature with sticks and throw it in some water. A few days later they returned to find the decomposing body. Taking a few pictures of it, it quickly spread through the media as a “mysterious creature from Panama” and the teens claim that they were frightened for their lives and killed it…..right.

Tree Sloth crossing a road

Since I was a kid, I always thought that Sloths were the creepiest creatures on earth (besides humans). I guess it’s because they are so human looking with their limbs and faces.
When I was in Costa Rica with my brother, our guide was telling us how these creatures get run over by cars all the time because when they attempt to cross the roads, it takes them a very long time due to the fact that they are not ground dwelling creatures so their muscles are not developed for crawling. While driving at nights, I would be on the alert because the last thing I would want to do is run over one of these things and then have it cling on to the Jeep and crawl its way inside. Slash my throat with its long claws. That meant that I would have to fight it. Punch it in the face or stomach. I would have to touch it. No thanks. It would have to kill me right then and there, as I refuse to wrestle with this thing.

Anyways, here is the story.

The beast’s hairless, rubbery body and revolting features have drawn comparisons with the Montauk Monster, the still-unidentified animal photographed on a New York beach last year.
According to reports in Panama, the teenagers spotted the creature crawling out of a cave while playing in the town of Cerro Azul north of Panama City.

Fearing for the safety as it moved towards them, the youths claim they attacked the beast with sticks before throwing its lifeless body into a pool of water.
They returned later to take pictures of the corpse which were then posted on the website of the Central American country’s Telemetro television station.
The images have since bounced around various cryptozoology blogs, with several explanations suggested for what it might have been.

A hooked claw visible in one of the photos has been cited as evidence for the popular theory that the creature was a sloth that somehow lost its hair.
The so-called Montauk Monster provoked intense speculation when photos allegedly taken at the Long Island resort where it was washed up were posted on Gawker, the US gossip website.
It was variously identified as a dead dog, a disused film prop and a marketing stunt, but its remains have never been found.

Full source: Telegraph UK