Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a "friend" who lives in New York City he ordered a hatchling alligator from a place in Fla. , don't worry the gator is doing great! The problem is that the dealer sent him the gator as if there was no problem but inside along with the little guy was a notice that the dealer had to send a copy of the sale to the florida fish and wilslife commision. My friend is worried that the authorities are now going to get involved as alligators are not legal pets in NYC. Does anyone have a similar situation here? If anyone has anything helpful I would greatly appreciate it. My friend does not want to get the dealer in trouble so he is going to say he bought if from a guy here in New York. How is it the dealer cannot get in trouble for shipping it? Anyone?

Alligators coming out of Florida all come with that paper / permit ... alligator transport permit.

I highly doubt FL fish and game knows or cares about the regulations of cities outside of Florida.

I also highly doubt that the seller would get in any trouble, most sellers wont send you a baby gator, baby croc or whatever if you tell them its illegal for you or if they know its illegal for you ....... but its not reasonable to think a seller in Florida could possibly know the laws of every single city in the USA let alone even just the states.

Also just about every state and or city that doesnt allow the keeping of crocodilians does in fact allow this but only under certain circumstances ... zoo, animal shelter, animal educational programs, etc

It is ultimently the buyers responsibilty to know and abide by there state and local regulations. (also it sounds like your buddy knew it was illegal before he even purchased it).

Well of course he did this is new york city we can't have anything exotic here. Are you saying the Fla fish and game will not notify the new york fish and game? If so everything is cool. I am now looking into the requirements for obtaining a permit. Hopefully he will follow through with the steps. Thank you again and ANY information would be greatly appreciated.

Well you never know what FL fish and Game would do, but I personally wouldnt worry about it. Im sure FL F&G has better things to do and worry about than checking regulations in cities outside of FL.

You or your freiend really should have looked into and acquired whatever permits are needed before hand though. When people back door animals without the proper permits and so forth ... if something happens down the road the officials just make things harder for everyone including the people that do get the permits and so forth before hand.

It is posible to get permits, its just a matter of taking the time to research the regulations, do whatever you might have to do to quailify for the permit and then apply.

I mean look at California, no one wants to ship a croc to california, most importers and exporters of croc's make sure that any croc's dont go anywhere near Califonia for fear that the croc's would be seized because of there regulations there. BUT even Califonia must have exceptions and otherwise allow crocodilians (i havent researched the regs there to no exactly) San Diego Zoo has croc's that im quit sure are legal, Jackson had croc's at his home/private zoo and im sure there are tons of others by private keepers and facilities that keep croc's in California.

Bottom line is that im sure you or your friend will be ok, BUT the correct permit needs to be acquired otherwise you are running a risk of being caught fined possibly even jailed not to mention all of the problems that your unpermited gator could bring onto the folks that do keep there croc's legaly under permit.

When there is any kind of problem with croc's even if they are illegaly kept animals, all of the negativity will fall toward both legal and illegal croc's.

You are absolutly right! I am trying to find out how and where to aquire a permit in new york city. I have found this link:http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/speclic/croc_permit.html
Do you have any other directions to point me in? Oh and BTW THANKS SO MUCH!!! for all your help

The best thing to do is to obtain the permit. There are 10's if not 100's of thousands Aligators that get shipped out of Florida annually. If they had to notify every state of every person who bought an alligator, even if they only notified the states that require a permit they would need a staff of hundreds of people just doing this. Because there would be follow ups on the part of the state where you live.Florida would have to tell them who sold it to you, send them a copy of the bill of sale, etc. Besides you have people keeping tigers in their basements in New York, they have bigger problems than Crocodilians.

Just my 2 cents

The permits to allow the possession of these animals in New York **DOES NOT** include NYC. It can't. It won't. So the DEC website that tells you to write to Albany is useless for NYC. I can tell you right now.....your friend isn't getting a permit either way. They don't hand out permits for "pet" alligators. It just isn't going to happen. Your friend has more of a chance getting caught if he writes to Albany asking for a permit. I live here I have had these types of animals for over ten years. This is the ONLY way to keep a pet croc/ alligator here........ready?.....here it is.......SAY NOTHING AND DENY EVERYTHING.

....get caught, lose your animals, get placed on the statistics list and make all exotic animal owners look irresponsible. Can't forget that very important part.

Chris

>>The permits to allow the possession of these animals in New York **DOES NOT** include NYC. It can't. It won't. So the DEC website that tells you to write to Albany is useless for NYC. I can tell you right now.....your friend isn't getting a permit either way. They don't hand out permits for "pet" alligators. It just isn't going to happen. Your friend has more of a chance getting caught if he writes to Albany asking for a permit. I live here I have had these types of animals for over ten years. This is the ONLY way to keep a pet croc/ alligator here........ready?.....here it is.......SAY NOTHING AND DENY EVERYTHING.
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The law is hypocritcal and I'm not paying the price for it. When I lived in suburban Pennsylvania I walked right into a pet store and bought my first caiman. You don't need anything in PA. Now I live in suburban New York and I can't? I don't think so. Furthermore if the DEC came to my house and found what I have they would take it and I would get a fine. If I was a cop or a fireman they would look the other way. I should respect laws that protect the "connected" and rich? Not me bud. Here's a great story for you I bought a 5 foot spectacled caiman from a NYS animal control officer. He confiscated it and then sold it to me on the side. Then like a year later I saw him on here selling 2 alligators! The laws are a joke.

What do you think he should do with them?

Was he keeping the money for himself or are you just assuming that?

Just curious.

Yes he was confiscating animals then selling them on the side. He shouldn't be confiscating peoples animals to begin with. So he shouldn't be doing ANYTHING with them. It was someones pet. I found out what he did for a living months later. The caiman I bought was tagged on the tail too. I should let some clown DEC / Animal Control / SPCA losers take my pets and either sell them or kill them? Yeah right. Not me. I'll keep my pets in secrecy for the rest of my life if have too. Or until I move back to PA.