Cops: Shop owner beat employees with live lizard

An Eastern Bearded Dragon. An Eastern Bearded Dragon. Photo: De Agostini Picture Library, De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images Photo: De Agostini Picture Library, De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Cops: Shop owner beat employees with live lizard 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Be glad this guy isn't your boss.

A South Florida reptile shop owner faces battery and animal cruelty charges after he allegedly slapped employees with a live bearded lizard. He also put the poor reptile in his mouth and threw Gatorade on employees, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Video surveillance showed Benjamin Herman Siegel, 40, owner of Siegel Reptiles in Deerfield Beach, Fla., tossing the creature in the air and swinging it, the report stated.

Siegel was arrested after the incident Friday and jailed without bond.

It's not the first time that his store has made national headlines. In 2012, it hosted a cockroach-eating contest in which a man threw up and died after consuming dozens of insects and worms. The grand prize was a giant python.