IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN (Iowa) 08 June 06 County resident kills alligator-like reptile (Mike McWilliams)
Solon: A South American alligator-like reptile was shot and killed Wednesday in north Johnson County after it escaped from a nearby animal rescue shelter.
The reptile, a 4-foot spectacled caiman, was shot near the Twin Valley Lakes neighborhood, which is near the Witty Kitties animal shelter.
Johnson County Sheriff's deputy Sgt. Bill Rockafellow said deputies received a call about the reptile at 1:50 p.m.
"It was located or stumbled upon by one of the residents in the area," Rockafellow said. "It made aggressive sounds or something like that, and it was destroyed by the person."
The man who shot the caiman did not want his name published.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources information specialist Joe Wilkinson said a DNR wildlife technician also arrived on the scene.
"He was calling his supervisor to ask what to do. Before he could get an answer, one of the neighbors shot it," Wilkinson said.
Torben Platt, who runs Witty Kitties with his wife at their 3133 Robert Ferry Road N.E. home, said he's not sure how the caiman escaped. Caimans are similar to alligators but are generally smaller and are native to Central and South America.
Platt has two other caimans in addition to about 150 total animals, including llamas, emus, cats, pygmy goats and pigs. The caimans are kept in a plastic pool surrounded by a chain-link fence.
"We had no idea we had an escapee," he said. "It's a mystery to me how it got out."
Platt said this is the first time he's had an animal escape since he started the shelter about five years ago. Of the caiman shooting, Platt said he was upset.
"It's frankly kind of typical of the mindset -- people tend to shoot first and think about things later," Platt said. "It's no danger to anybody, and I just think that at least an attempt should have been made for us to come get it instead of shooting it, but it's also my fault that it got out."
Twin Valley Lakes resident Tina Gehrke said neighbors there have expressed concern about the nearby animal shelter "on more than one occasion."
"It's kind of a fear when we have exotic animals living so close to our lakes," Gehrke said.
Iowa City/Coralville Animal Care and Adoption Center director Misha Goodman said animal control workers were ready to respond to help capture the caiman.
"Animals escape sometimes, and that's what animal control is there for," Goodman said. "I was not happy that it had been shot when the authorities had already been contacted to deal with it."
County resident kills alligator-like reptile