Lizard found in NJ kindergartner's salad now a class pet
PRINCETON, N.J. -- A Princeton, New Jersey, elementary school science class has a new pet lizard after the reptile was found in a student's salad.
Riverside Elementary School science teacher Mark Eastburn says the 3-inch green anole lizard was found in a bundle of tatsoi greens last week by a kindergartner.
The lizard had been cold and lifeless after being confined in a refrigerator for days, but it has since been warmed and lives in a cage in Eastburn's class.
They think the lizard, dubbed "Green Fruit Loop," came from Florida since, as Eastburn points out, green anole lizards live in the southeastern states, from Texas to North Carolina.
The salad greens were purchased from Whole Earth Center in Princeton. Mike Atkinson, the store's produce manager, said the greens are cleaned as they're stocked and that the lizard must've been tucked away in a leaf.
"It might normally surprise or freak out conventional shoppers, but the majority of organic shoppers realize that produce is grown on a farm and there's lots of bugs and animals that live on a farm too," Atkinson said.
