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"Blake Shelton has apologised to his Twitter followers for making a controversial joke about killing a turtle. The furore was sparked over the weekend, when Shelton posted what appeared to be a legal question on his official Twitter account.   &amp;quot;Does anyone know if the Eastern Box turtle is protected in Oklahoma? If so I didn&amp;#039;t just swerve to the shoulder of the road to smash one...&amp;quot; Shelton wrote. Shelton&amp;#039;s comments drew condemnation from a variety of posters, including a series of strong rebukes for perceived animal cruelty from a user called &amp;#039;turtlefeed&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;Hey @turtlefeed. Before u make an even bigger dips**t of urself you should research on how much money I have raised to feed homeless animals,&amp;quot; Shelton replied. He continued: &amp;quot;Hey @turtlefeed.. I solely have raised over a million dollars in animal rescue/conservation alone... How much have you raised? Oh. Ok. Next!&amp;quot;  Shelton continued to argue with animal rights advocates, before finally insisting that his original comment was just a joke. The Voice coach commented: &amp;quot;The best part of all of this is that the dumb asses didn&amp;#039;t even look to see that I&amp;#039;m not even in Oklahoma today!! I&amp;#039;m in North Dakota!! Do they even have turtles in North Dakota?!!! God almighty!!! What&amp;#039;s wrong with people?! Get a life!! Get a job!! Get laid!! For once!!! &amp;quot;For the last time I didn&amp;#039;t hit a turtle! I haven&amp;#039;t seen a turtle! So please all you turtle freaks go back to eating your boogers!! It&amp;#039;s ok.&amp;quot; He ultimately offered an apology to anyone he offended with his original message.   &amp;quot;Ok.. Now that &amp;#039;Turtle-Gate&amp;#039; is over I want to apologize for my ignorant joke.. I never ran over a turtle. It wasn&amp;#039;t even possible,&amp;quot; the singer posted, adding: &amp;quot;And also I&amp;#039;d like to thank my followers for always having my back!!! Y&amp;#039;all know my sense of humor. And yes it&amp;#039;s screwed up...&amp;quot; Shelton will return for the third season of The Voice, where he will be joined by his team&amp;#039;s new special advisor Michael Buble. The Voice premieres its third season on Monday, September 10 at 8/7c on NBC. Watch Blake Shelton&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Who Are You When I&amp;#039;m Not Looking&amp;#039; music video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/the-voice/news/a396441/voice-blake-shelton-apologises-for-joke-about-running-over-a-turtle/>