Posted by:
JenHarrison
at Tue Sep 4 03:06:08 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by JenHarrison ]
Alligator Alley is digusting, I went there with a cadet I'm mentoring from the Challenge Academy back in May. They had about 30-40 alligators crammed into a 10' x 40' glass enclosure with about 1 foot of water (not enough to submerge or swim in) and all of them fighting for food when it gets dropped in by guests (usually 1-inch meat cubes or live mice/rats). They have a tiny basking area in the enclosure that could maybe fit 2 alligators on at a time, and no where to get away from prying human eyes or hide. Carpet pythons were being housed in the same cage as rainbow boas with nothing to climb on or hide in to get away from the sopping wet substrate. The anaconda couldn't stretch out or uncoil as its enclosure was too small, and the water was a nasty brownish red. The albino alligator had no room to turn around or do anything either. They have a tank full of deformed turtles that should have been humanely euthanized instead of being put on display. The alligator they use for guest pictures spends the entire day in a dry, bare Vision cage with no water or hiding place and its mouth taped up from opening until close. The albino burm they use for pics gets purposely starved by the owner's own admissions to keep it small -- the skin hangs off, the body squishes between your fingers, and the animal is so lethargic that it doesn't even flick its tongue. When asked what they feed it, he says chicken parts. It was a regular albino burm, not an albino green, so they must have swapped it out since they got investigated. They have a tank full of tiny quarter-sized turtles for sale, which was flat-out illegal (before the ban was lifted this summer). I wrote a strongly worded letter to the Lake Delton police department as well as the Dells department of tourism and other agencies, voicing my concerns -- and Alligator Alley is now being investigated. SGT Klipp, the investigating detective, had the curator from the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Illinois drive up and check the place out, giving his expert opinion. He almost confiscated the albino burm right then and there. The place had 90 days to make things better...it looks like they might have from your pics, but I'm curious to see that burm and see the enclosures for myself. I need to get up there again.
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~* Jen *~
Pink Lady Constrictors
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RE: HUGE OT POST PICS AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - JenHarrison, Tue Sep 4 03:06:08 2007