EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE (Mesa, Arizona) 24 March 06 Local nonprofit houses hundreds of reptiles (Shanna Hogan)
A 400-pound alligator, a 4-foot crocodile and eight deadly albino rattlesnakes live in north Scottsdale. But they aren’t slithering through the vacant desert landscapes — these are among the hundreds of creatures that live in 42-year-old Daniel Marchand’s backyard.Marchand is the facility curator of the Phoenix Herpetological Society.
Five years ago Marchand, a selftaught reptile expert, turned his lifelong passion into a full-time hobby when he helped found the nonprofit organization in his 2-acre backyard.
Today the sanctuary near Scottsdale Road and Dynamite Boulevard houses 465 animals, including nearly 20 kinds of venomous snakes, more than 100 tortoises, an array of lizards and 44 alligators, crocodiles and caimans.
“I’ve been into reptiles my whole life,” said Marchand, whose day job is building cabinets. “It was an avid hobby that essentially turned into a full-time job.”
The society has grown from just three original founders to about 50 regular volunteers who help maintain the sanctuary and work with state wildlife officials to care for and house the reptiles.
“Maybe people think we’re crazy,” Marchand said. “But enough of us have a passion for them — we just don’t want to let them die just because someone got bored with them.”
Most of the animals were brought there after being confiscated by law enforcement from people who possessed them illegally, mistreated or abandoned them.
Arizona law doesn’t allow private citizens to own alligators or crocodiles. Only zoos, educational facilities or accredited rescue shelters can keep them in captivity.
Before the society opened, the Arizona Game and Fish Department was forced to euthanize many of the animals it confiscated.
“When people brought them illegally into the state we didn’t have the proper facilities to care for them,” said Randy Babb of Game and Fish. “We had trouble finding some place to house them and then on top of that we didn’t have the budget.”
So Marchand, his girlfriend and another friend spent $20,000 of their own money to build the facility, get the required permits and team up with the state wildlife agency.
“These folks are just lifesavers,” Babb said. “They’ve helped us through lots of tough spots in holding these animals and they’ve saved the lives of many, many, many animals subsequently.”
The low-profile rescue operation made headlines last year for taking in a record 32 alligators seized near Casa Grande by Game and Fish officers.
That seizure doubled the society’s gator count and brought with it one unusual reptile — a 6-foot, 80-pound alligator named Tuesday.
Tuesday’s previous owners had raised her in the house like a dog for the first 12 years of her life, Marchand said.
“She had been potty trained, watched TV on the couch and even slept in bed with her owners,” he said.
Tuesday is one of the most docile creatures at the sanctuary and loves to be petted and to sit on people’s laps.
Tuesday’s emotional opposite, an 8-foot 3-inch alligator named Clem resides in the cage across from her.
The society spent nine days north of the Grand Canyon near Mesquite staking out and trapping the alligator that had lived on his owner’s property in virtual isolation for 19 years.
“Clem is a real wild alligator,” he said.
When Marchand approaches Clem’s cage, the gator hisses and starts to cower back into the water.
“They’re more afraid of us than we are of them,” Marchand said. “Just neither of us knows that.”
The society tries to adopt out many of the illegal animals to zoos, but finding facilities with enough space and money is difficult, Marchand said.
The majority of the animals will stay at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives.
Marchand lives with his longtime girlfriend, Debbie Gibson, co-founder of the society. She said living among the reptiles has helped eliminate her fear of snakes.
“In the beginning I was definitely afraid,” she said. “But once you really get into it, you see these are really wonderful animals.”
Today she is very active in the society and even assists on some of the rescues.
“Alligators don’t belong in the desert, they didn’t ask to come here,” she said. “All animals deserve a quality of life.”
Crocodilian facts
• Alligators, crocodiles and caimans are not indigenous to Arizona; the ones that are here have been brought by people.
• Caimans and crocodiles can’t live in cold weather; without human intervention they would most likely die during Arizona’s winters.
• It is illegal to purchase or own an alligator in Arizona, as in most other states.
• Crocodilians are carnivorous. They eat fish, snails, birds, frogs and mammals.
• Large alligators eat smaller alligators.
• American alligators can live between 50 and 70 years.
• Male crocodilians can reach 12 to 14.5 feet in length; females can reach 7 to 10 feet.
• Exceptionally large male alligators can weigh up to 750 pounds.
Source: Phoenix Herpetological Society
The Phoenix Herpetological Society houses:
• 44 crocodilians, including a 9-foot, 400-pound American alligator named Amos.
• An endangered dwarf crocodile named Sobak.
• The second-largest species of monitor lizard that can get up to 200 pounds, a water monitor named Rowdy.
• 20 kinds of deadly snakes.
• More than 10 species of tortoises, including one weighing 120 pounds named Big Max.
Source: Phoenix Herpetological Society
Nonprofit houses hundreds of reptiles