Violence against animals is never ever tolerated ... but what if they are imaginary? Oh, and extinct?

16-year-old Alex Stone from South Carolina wrote a story for a class assignment about his neighbor's pet dinosaur.

Unfortunately his story involved him killing the dinosaur using a gun. His teachers were so alarmed they called the local police, at which point the boy was arrested and suspended from school for three days, reports Fox News.

Police maintain that they did not arrest 16-year-old Alex Stone until after they searched his bag and locker and the boy became "very irate" and disruptive to the school.

"I could understand if they made him re-write it because he did have 'gun' in it, but a pet dinosaur?" his mother, Karen Gray, told WCSC.

"I mean first of all, we don't have dinosaurs anymore. Second of all, he's not even old enough to buy a gun."

But the police captain says the charges "do not stem from anything involving a dinosaur or writing assignment, but the student’s conduct."