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DAILY INTER LAKE (Kalispell, Montana) 04 August 06 Charges unlikely in death of alligator (Kristi Albertson)
No one has been charged with animal cruelty for attempting to kill an alligator discovered at the Shady Lane fishing pond Monday afternoon.
A crowd of people reportedly tried to hook the alligator on a fishing pole, shot it with a bow and arrow and slit its throat before a Flathead County sheriff’s deputy arrived a little after 10 p.m. and had to put the reptile down.
The story appeared in the Daily Inter Lake on Wednesday and was picked up by The Drudge Report, a popular Internet news and gossip site. Since then, media outlets around the world have attempted to contact the family that found the alligator. They were scheduled to appear on “Good Morning America” this morning.
Due to the national exposure, more than 100 people e-mailed the Inter Lake and a number of people called to express their indignation at what took place. Most wanted to know if anyone will be charged with animal cruelty.
The answer, at least for the time being, is no. The case is under investigation and will ultimately be submitted to County Attorney Ed Corrigan for his opinion, but Sheriff Jim Dupont said there were no charges pending.
Lynn Bryant, who found the gator with her son, Josh, said she didn’t do anything to the animal other than take its picture. When a friend showed up a few minutes later to go fishing with his daughter, he tried to hook it so they could get it out of the water and call someone about it.
Many who contacted the Inter Lake wondered why those involved didn’t call someone right away.
Dupont said that anyone who finds himself in a similar situation should notify the sheriff’s office at once. Deputies would then probably refer it to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, so the animal could be trapped and sent to a more suitable environment.
“I wasn’t even thinking of that, to tell you the truth,” Bryant said. “The bottom line is it was our safety I was concerned about. If I was walking in the woods out here and saw a bear, I’m going to shoot it for my safety or for my family’s safety.”
The pond is a popular summer destination for local children, who often go fishing or swimming there unattended, she said. The fact that she was there with Josh Monday afternoon was a fluke.
“The thing I’m saying is I’m glad that we drug that alligator out of there and we weren’t dragging my kid out of there.”
When they first spotted the gator, Bryant took photos of it with her camera phone. Within about an hour, her battery went dead, she said, and so she didn’t have the option of calling any longer.
Meanwhile, more people showed up, none of whom Bryant knew. By the time Deputy Roy Young arrived a little after 10 p.m., there were about 20 people at the pond. Earlier reports said there were about 50 people present.
“Those people made their own decisions,” Bryant said. “I didn’t condone what they did, and I didn’t really like it.”
Dupont said there are several issues which law enforcement must consider in the case.
“The first is: Does it fall under a Montana law?”
So far, neither the sheriff’s office nor Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has found any statute that covers alligators specifically. Depont said the law on cruelty to animals defines “animals,” and that alligators aren’t listed.
“An alligator is not considered an animal, and we don’t have reptile laws,” he said.
The Inter Lake, however, could not find any definition for “animal” in Montana Code Annotated section 45-8-211, which covers animal cruelty. The code states without qualification that, “A person commits the offense of cruelty to animals if, without justification, the person knowingly or negligently subjects an animal to mistreatment or neglect by... overworking, beating, tormenting, torturing, injuring or killing the animal.”
The second issue law enforcement is considering is the fact that the people directly involved in the attack against the alligator say they believed the animal was going to harm them.
“As in any criminal case, you have to prove there was malice and forethought,” Dupont said. “Nobody’s going to admit that they did it for ha-ha, so then you’ve got to prove that they did it maliciously.”
Finally, there’s the question of jurisdiction. Flathead County is willing to take responsibility for the investigation, Dupont said, but it may actually be a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks case. If the sheriff’s office does take it, it won’t be top priority because they’re busy with other cases this summer, he added.
That’s where Marvin’s Fund of Montana may step in. The anti-animal-cruelty organization is set up to assist law enforcement, said spokeswoman Myni Ferguson.
The group understands deputies and officers often have more pressing matters to handle, she said.
“Unfortunately, (animal cruelty) is one of those low priorities,” she said. “We can step in and fill the gap. We feel that the law is the law is the law, and you can’t be selective in enforcing them.”
At this point, Ferguson understands there is uncertainty about whether anyone will be charged with animal cruelty for abusing the alligator, but she believes the law does cover all animals, even large reptiles.
“As long as Montana allows people to have their choice of pets, animal cruelty covers them all,” she said.
Public outcry may help their case, she added.
“It’s the old squeaky wheel thing,” she said. “If enough people squeak...”
The alligator affair apparently began with good intentions, Ferguson said; it simply escalated out of control.
“I understand there was a lot of initial fear, and it was developed into a kind of gang mentality,” she said.
And despite loud public clamoring for animal cruelty charges, the real person at fault is the one who let the alligator go, Ferguson said.
“Primarily, we blame the person who set it loose,” she said. “Whoever did it must have known that he or she was consigning it to be a public nuisance and a potentially brutal death.”
That person never should have had a gator in Montana in the first place, Dupont said.
“I think the whole emphasis on this thing should be don’t buy alligators. They grow up and this is exactly what happens,” he said. “Reality tells you how stupid it is.
“I understand, we’re all upset about the poor alligator dying, but again, let’s get a reality check, too,” he added. “Exotic pets like that don’t belong in the state of Montana.”
Charges unlikely in death of alligator

INDEPENDENT RECORD (Helena, Montana) 09 August 06 Alligator takes up residence in pond; FWP cites owner
Kalispell (AP): Authorities here have cited the owner of an alligator that was killed after it apparently got loose from its pen and ended up in a local fishing pond.
Rod Nelson was cited under a state regulation that prohibits the release into the wild of any wildlife from outside the state.
Tim Feldner, manager of commercial wildlife permitting for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Tuesday that Nelson faces a fine ranging from $50 to $1,000, to be determined by a judge.
Anglers spotted the alligator on July 31 in the Shady Lane Pond, a popular local fishing hole. A sheriff’s deputy eventually had to kill the alligator because of wounds it suffered from bystanders. One man apparently shot the alligator with a bow and arrow, while others beat it with sticks and one person attempted to slit the animal’s throat.
Feldner said Nelson told authorities his alligator apparently got out of its pen while he was out of town. Nelson contacted authorities when he returned and heard news accounts of what happened, Feldner said.
FWP investigator Brian Sommers urges people to report any exotic wildlife to FWP or to their local sheriff’s office.
‘‘In this case, we could have handled the problem more effectively if the sighting of the alligator had been reported immediately,’’ he said.
Alligator takes up residence in pond; FWP cites owner

THE MISSOULIAN (Missoula, Montana) 09 August 06 Mob attack on alligator in Kalispell draws anger (Michael Jamison)
Kalispell: Back behind the old roller rink, on a quiet little pond called Shady Lane, a mother and son were fishing when a rippled wake cut across the water's surface.
“They weren't sure what it was,” said Brian Sommers, an investigator with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “They thought it was a really big fish.”
Actually, it was a really big alligator, about five feet long.
And so began a vigilante gator hunt that eventually drew 50 people and lasted hours, through the heat of the day and long into the night.
It's been a full week since the mom and son spotted that escaped pet in a Kalispell park, yet the excitement will not die down.
The alligator's owner, Rod Nelson, was cited this week for letting his pet escape, despite the fact that he wasn't even home when it got away. And now investigators are following tips that someone else may have cut the gator loose, and more charges could be pending.
But none of the vigilantes have been cited, leaving many here wondering whether all animals are created equal under Montana's cruelty laws.
How was it that no one called the authorities? Sommers wonders. How was it that a gang of 50 people came to converge on the tiny pond? How was it that the animal ended up hooked, harassed, pierced with arrows and dragged from the pond, still alive but with its throat slit?
“It was pretty ugly,” Sommers said. “Sort of a gang mentality, I guess.”
He can only guess, of course, because he didn't get the call until 10 p.m., nearly seven hours after the gator was first seen. What happened in the interim, the investigator said, may never be completely known.
What is known, however, is that “in this case, we could have handled the problem more effectively if the sighting of the alligator had been reported immediately.”
But no one reported it. Instead, Flathead County Undersheriff Mike Meehan said the family reported being too busy protecting themselves to call authorities.
“That's puzzling,” Sommers said. “If you want to protect your family, why not get the heck out of there and call for help? I mean, how hard is it to walk away and make the call, instead of sitting there messing with it for hours? It really amazes me that somebody didn't call.”
At some point during the afternoon, Sommers said, a crowd began to gather at Shady Lane.
Several people snagged the gator with fishing hooks. Others enticed it to swallow their lures.
“Personally,” Meehan said, “I can't imagine having a bellyful of treble hooks.”
At least one man brought a bow and shot the reptile. Another waded in and wrestled Nelson's pet, while another cut its throat open.
“It turned into a kind of frenzy down there,” Meehan said. “It was like a mob, just out of hand. They spent their day torturing this animal.”
“But gators are pretty tough,” Sommers said.
The animal was still alive when the crowd finally dragged it from the pond at 10 p.m., he said. That's about the time someone thought to call for help, and a sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene.
After conferring with Sommers, the alligator was shot by authorities.
“It was already half-dead,” Meehan said.
“As you can imagine, the owner was a little emotional,” Sommers added.
If it had been a mean dog, a breed with a reputation for attacking people, and the crowd had responded with hooks and barbs and sharpened knives, “then we'd be looking at animal cruelty charges, I believe,” Sommers said. He can't help but think of the outrage elicited by the man who, not so long ago, was charged here with cruelty because he used kittens to train his hunting hounds.
“The kind of thoughtlessness here is not far from that case, I think,” Sommers said.
Yet local authorities have no plans to file additional charges.
“We are looking into it,” Meehan said. “If we can establish just exactly who did what, we may pursue charges.”
That no one has yet been cited has resulted in something of an uproar from those opposing animal cruelty.
“We must have received 100 e-mails and probably another 200 phone calls,” Meehan said, especially after news reports hit the Internet. “People around the world were outraged.”
But no one's expecting criminal charges any time soon, and Sommers remains dismayed that the public response was so callous.
If someone had called straight away, he said, “we would have captured it pretty easily.”
Perhaps it could have been returned to its owner, who lives near the pond but was out of town when the gator escaped. Perhaps it could have been relocated to a new home.
The head of the Humane Society in Billings called Sommers this week to tell him about the half-dozen pet gators he's been able to place with families out of state, in places such as Florida. His phone's still ringing.
And if the fuss over gator welfare hasn't slacked, neither has the FWP investigation. Turns out, Sommers now has a lead on the people who might have set the animal loose.
“We're making inquiries,” he said. “There could be some charges there.”
But still, no charges for the mob.
“I've had a lot of calls about the way people treated the situation,” Sommers said, “and we've talked with the sheriff's office about it. But I really don't believe anyone there will follow up with formal action.”
Instead, his office is making a more informal plea for “common sense.”
“Report the situation immediately,” advised Jim Satterfield, supervisor at Kalispell's FWP office. “And think of the consequences of your actions toward the animal before doing anything.”
Mob attack on alligator in Kalispell draws anger