Lizard Found In Kindergartner's Salad Becomes New Class Pet

PRINCETON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP)-- A New Jersey elementary school science class has a new pet after a lizard was discovered in a student's salad after being refrigerated for days.

Riverside Elementary School science teacher Mark Eastburn told NJ.com the 3-inch green anole lizard was found in a bundle of tatsoi greens last week by a kindergartner.

The lizard was first discovered cold and lifeless after being kept in a refrigerator for days, but it has since been warmed. The pet now resides in a cage in Eastburn's class.

"It's a really fitting mascot for our science lab,'' he told NJ.com

The lizard, dubbed "Green Fruit Loop,'' came from Florida. Eastburn said green anole lizards live in the southeastern states, from Texas to North Carolina.

"It probably has some moderate adaptation to the cold which is why it made it through,'' Eastburn said.

The tatsoi had been bought from Whole Earth Center, a natural foods store 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.

"I've been in produce for 17 years and I've never heard of a lizard making it to the customer,'' Atkinson said. "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. It shouldn't be a surprise that one here and there makes it to the produce shelf."

This is not the first case of a creature being discovered in a salad. Back in 2013, a customer claimed she found a dead frog in a salad from UK-based salad and sandwich chain Pret A Manger. The company said because it does not use pesticides that organic matter "very rarely" manages to pass through the production process.

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