SENTINEL AND ENTERPRISE (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) 25 July 06 Editorial: Punish reckless alligator owner
Just when you thought you've heard everything, we reported last week that Townsend and State Environmental Police caught a six-foot alligator in a residential neighborhood Tuesday.
The capture came after a truck driver spotted it sunning itself in the middle of Old City Road in Townsend.
It took three officers about 45 minutes to capture the reptile, even though its mouth had been sealed shut with black electrical tape.
"If he had gotten the tape off, we would have had a lot bigger problem," Townsend Police Officer Thadeus Rochette, who helped capture the alligator, told the Sentinel & Enterprise. "We probably would have had to shoot it."
Police caught a second alligator Friday.
Michael Ralbovsky, who owns Rain Forest Reptile Shows in Beverly, said he will take care of the animal for a few weeks before sending it to the St. Augistine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in Florida.
"That animal can be quite dangerous," Ralbovsky said.
"It can be extremely dangerous to a child."
Ralbovsky said the tape around the alligator's mouth could have given way, because of the swamp water.
He said releasing an alligator into a residential area like this is "simply reckless."
Whoever did this "needs to go to jail," Ralbovsky said.
We agree.
It's hard to believe anyone would want to own an alligator as a pet - to do so is illegal in Massachusetts but legal in New Hampshire - but apparently this alligator's owner got tired of having the reptile around and decided to release it.
That decision put anyone who came into contact with the alligator, or who could of come into contact with the alligator, in serious danger.
If the alligators had broken through the duct tape, they could have killed a child or severely injured an adult.
Whoever decided to release the alligators made an incredibly dangerous and selfish decision, which fortunately ended with no one getting hurt.
Police say they now know who owned the alligators.
We say it's time to charge him with endangering the public.
Editorial: Punish reckless alligator owner