PHILADELPIA INQUIRER (Pennsylvania) 25 August 06 A haven for the scaly and the unwanted - Your gator’s gone wild? Here’s a place for it to go. (Bonnie L. Cook)
Just off a rural road in Lancaster County, 40 formerly abandoned reptiles live in glass cages with a water pan and warming lamp.
There's Harley, a red-tailed boa constrictor as big around as a melon, depending on what she's eaten that week. There's Victor, a lime-green iguana who thumps his spiny tail, trying to escape his cage in Jesse Rothacker's garage.
And there are the alligators - five of them.
Rothacker, 24, has turned into the region's de facto savior of unwanted alligators, once small, cute pets that have - quite predictably - grown into big, dangerous beasts.
The genial biology major and aspiring teacher says that demand for cage space at Forgotten Friend, which is in his converted garage near Manheim, is so high that he has five other alligators on the waiting list.
He was surprised to get dozens of calls this summer, asking him to solve alligator problems. "If 20 people found us in a month for an alligator, how many others are out there that shouldn't have alligators?"
Rothacker is so comfortable with reptiles that he often carries a snake in his shirt pocket. In high school, he once got detention after he carried one to a basketball game.
But for most people, owning a large reptile such as a big snake, aggressive lizard or an alligator makes no sense, he says. Alligators live 50 years, grow to 15 feet, and can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds.
"Reptile owners are not bad people and reptiles aren't bad pets," Rothacker says. "But stay away from the biggest ones."
With 60 presentations to children at libraries this summer, he has tried to raise public awareness about the inappropriateness of alligators as pets.
Alligator ownership is illegal in New Jersey, but unregulated in Pennsylvania, except in Philadelphia and Reading, where pet alligators are forbidden. Rothacker can't say whether an increasing number of private alligator owners are giving up when the bond between pet and owner turns sour. Animal handlers say it seems that way.
"There's no taming a reptile," said Officer Dylan Heckart of the Humane Society of Berks County. "They just don't have the mental capacity to form that bond."
Heckart turned over one of the five alligators now at Rothacker's shelter. His was among the 20 calls for alligator help that Rothacker received in July. Ten others came in earlier this year, and Rothacker now says he expects to receive such a call every few days.
He is typically asked to take alligators that have become too big or aggressive for their owners to handle, likely at three to four years of age.
Or, he's summoned by police, humane officers or pest control experts who have found them wandering in public.
Recently, Rothacker took in two from Pottstown, one from Chester County, one from Berks County, and a fifth alligator that had been a fraternity mascot at a college. Another was found walking around loose at a trailer park in Dauphin County.
"We'll take it, if it's in harm's way, no questions asked," said Rothacker.
The ownership cycle begins when hobbyists acquire the animals as tiny hatchlings for $50 to $100. They are sold on the Internet, through classified ads in reptile magazines, and from pet stores or reptile shows.
"People look at these guys when they're a foot long. They're very, very cute," said JoAnn Jester, a reptile owner from Delaware County. "What they don't understand is that these cute baby alligators grow to be 12 feet long and weigh 600 pounds."
Once alligators outgrow their cages, pet owners call it quits, said Heckart.
"They're dangerous at that size," Heckart said. "People would be better served to learn more about these animals before they make these impulse purchases."
In June, Pottstown police picked up a four-foot alligator that a newspaper carrier discovered early one morning as he walked between two parked cars. The reptile was booked into jail as Al E. Gator and soon became the talk of the precinct.
Then Gary Bauer, a pest control specialist from Douglassville, Berks County, who had found Rothacker on the Internet, came to transport the 'gator. "Thank God I know who Jesse is now," Bauer said.
Alligators, with skin that feels like a cool leather purse, are members of the crocodilian family. With their dull green eyes, black scales and 74 to 80 sharp little teeth, you do not want to put your hands near their powerful jaws, Rothacker cautions.
Alligators in captivity eat thawed-out frozen rodents, vitamins and alligator pellets, but pet owners sometimes feed them the wrong things. Al E. Gator was much too thin when police caught him.
"He's been eating like crazy," Rothacker said. "It will take a couple of years until he gets back to where he needs to be."
Rothacker, who spent his youth taking care of reptiles - and got his first pet snake in high school - started the nonprofit rescue two years ago. He keeps some reptiles and finds suitable homes for others.
In September, most of Rothacker's alligators will go to Florida Encounters, a captive wildlife refuge near Tampa. Owner John Paner said the new arrivals will be quarantined for 90 days, then introduced into ponds, where tour groups can see them.
Al E. Gator is lucky to land there. "People let them go [up north]. They can't survive outside," Paner said. "A lot of them never make it down here."
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