Saturday, October 13, 2007

Just headed to the winter home...

Two people walking along a grassy area in Wading River NY sunday, September 23 2007, noticed something not all that natural. The 3 1/2 foot-long creature walking along Route 25A may have been headed to it's winter home though.

A crew from the SPCA went out to investigate and ended up capturing an alligator. Officials state that they believe it may have been someones pet that was dumped in the area. The alligator went without much of a struggle and although it was missing some of it's front teeth, it could have caused serious injury to humans or snacked on small pets easily.

They estimate that it is beteeen 3 and 4 years old and with the coming winter temperatures, it would not have done well on surviving. Chief Roy Gross of the Suffolk County SPCA stated that they have collected approximately 112 reptiles including several alligators in the past year and he added that they are concerned that this one had been dumped in an area which is frquented by people.

They have set a reward of $1,000 dollars for information that leads to the arrest of whomever dumped the gator and he added, it is illegal to own them in the state of New York. This wandering alligator will be placed in a sanctuary out of state though.

I would guess then, that there is now one less alligator in the sewers under the city this winter... if that was where it was headed when it was captured.

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