MAITLAND, Fla. -- The U.S. Humane Society said Thursday that gopher tortoises are being buried alive during the construction of a new interchange in Central Florida.

The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has authorized construction of the new Maitland interchange on the west side of Orange County, but U.S. Humane Society officials said that helpless tortoises hiding in underground burrows up to 40-feet deep are being entombed by concrete in the process.

"They're immobilized, they can't get out of the burrow, and it can take them up to one year to die, one biologist has told us. It could take them that long to die of suffocation, dehydration or starvation. It's an absolutely excruciating kind of death," Jen Hobgood of the U.S. Humane Society said.

The gopher tortoise has been uplisted to threatened-species status and destroying their habitat will be illegal by September at the earliest, Local 6 News reported.

But the Expressway Authority paid the state more than $225,000 for an incidental take permit, which allows it to legally kill or bury the tortoises to create the roadway.

"We followed all of the rules that were set up by the state. We didn't create the laws. We didn't create the permits. We didn't create the conditions. We just followed the conditions that were enacted by the state, by the Fish and Wildlife Commission," Mary Brooks of the Expressway Authority said.

Companies with the special permits don't have to do anything to protect the tortoises, such as relocating them to a safer habitat.

"Any government ought to hold itself to a higher standard than the bare-minimun standard. Because you can bury alive gopher tortoises, doesn't necessarily mean you should," Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said.

Some citizens are concerned that the authority could have better spent its money saving the tortoises rather than destroying them.

"I don't think it's appropriate for a public agency to be using toll money to kill off imperiled species without the consent of the public," Rebecca Eagan said.

A world renowned tortoise expert, who lives in Oviedo, said as many as 50 other species will suffer as well.

"They should be keeping their head low for a few years while they regroup and get some more responsive administration," Peter Pritchard said.

"We can't have growth in an area and not disturb trees and the existing wildlife," Brooks said.

Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, the chairman of the board for the authority, declined to discuss the issue.

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