PATRIOT LEDGER (Qunicy, Massachusetts) 21 July 05 Our View: Dangers of exotic pets
It began last week as a scary story - crocodiles or alligators spotted in a pond in Brockton.
Luckily, animal control was able to capture one of two alligators and remove the threat. The smaller creature is not considered dangerous. At that point, it became a curious summertime story, with children petting the alligator after it was safely in the clutches of an expert.
Alligators and crocodiles - which look similar to the untrained eye - can seem cute. But they aren't. They are wild animals and can be extremely dangerous. They don't belong in local parks and they certainly don't belong in people's homes or yards.
It boggles the mind that people continue to purchase exotic mammals or reptiles that they have no knowledge of. Once a reptile like an alligator begins to grow, the owner may not know how to handle it or even be able to feed it. The ‘‘pet'' then becomes a throwaway.
Speculation about the Brockton alligators includes the possibility they were left behind by a carnival or had been kept as pets. The one captured in Waldo Lake at D.W. Field Park was 41/2 feet long.
Clearly, the creature posed a threat to unsuspecting children. Just reaching a finger toward a hungry alligator in the water is dangerous.
A couple weeks ago a large lizard, several feet long, was dumped near a North Shore pet store. Luckily, it was found and delivered to people who knew how to handle it. Lizards, especially iguanas, have become popular pets, and they too are often abandoned when they grow to full size and are far too big for life in a carton or cage.
A Massachusetts resident needs a permit to have an alligator. Obviously, such restrictions are widely ignored.
The law ought to prohibit the sale of animals that have no business being kept as pets. Even when public safety is not involved, it is simply inhumane to put animals in these situations.
http://www.patriotledger.com/articles/2005/07/20/opinion/opin01.txt
BOSTON GLOBE (Massachusetts) 21 July 05 Rescuers see reptile as a lesson (Carolyn Y. Johnson)
Where's Waldo now?
If you were wondering, the 4 1/2-foot-long, 20-pound alligator lifted out of Brockton's Waldo Lake in D.W. Field Park amid much fanfare last week is now basking in a custom-built, rubber-lined whirlpool on the North Shore.
Waldo was taken to Rainforest Reptile Shows, a joint educational and entertainment venture that houses 75 species of reptiles in a large laboratory complex, following his dramatic rescue (or capture, depending on the perspective) last Thursday. The thrashing, snapping youngster was cornered by animal rescue officials in kayaks while herpetologist Michael Ralbovsky, known in some circles as ''Reptile Man," leaped sock-footed into the foot-deep water to nab him.
Estimated to be 4 1/2 years old, Waldo will be living alone in his 1,000-gallon cement tank until blood tests can confirm that he harbors no diseases. After that, he can live among other reptiles and begin touring classrooms, camps, or birthday parties to help teach children about the cruelty of taking in pets that are too wild to handle.
While Ralbovsky is reluctant to call his collection of animals at Rainforest Reptile Shows a rescue operation, the herpetologist has been increasingly called on by Massachusetts Environmental Police to take in reptiles that share Waldo's plight: illegally kept exotic pets that outgrow their owner's interest or ability to care for them, and are released into the wild.
''People are getting these pets legally, probably from another state where it is legal to have alligators," he said. ''They're bringing them here, and they're getting too big for them, and they're turning them loose because they're afraid of prosecution."
Over the past three weeks, a Savannah monitor, a 3-foot-long lizard from Africa, was captured after it walked into a computer store off Route 1 in Saugus. Another alligator was found in a river behind a car dealership in Auburn. And then Waldo, as well as a foot-long alligator that authorities say has probably been eaten by a large snapping turtle, were spotted in the 70-acre lake in Brockton.
Ralbovsky said he has sent about 150 illegal pet alligators to a sanctuary in St. Augustine, Fla., over the past 13 years. He would not reveal where exactly the creatures are harbored before they are taken south.
Ralbovsky said the reptile probably had been loose in the lake for less than a week, because he showed no scars, was still plump, and had no algae growing on his body. Life in the lake was a death sentence for the gator, who would never have survived the winter's subfreezing temperatures, according to Nicholas Gilman, chief operating officer of the Animal Rescue League of Boston.
''People are getting [these animals] . . . to show what kind of a tough guy they are by having a 3-foot alligator in their living room," Gilman said. ''This is about people wanting animals to improve their own image of themselves, and it's not fair to the animals."
It's illegal to own an alligator in Massachusetts, but the animals can be purchased in Rhode Island or New Hampshire and brought across state borders. The Animal Rescue League is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the identification and conviction of Waldo's owner.
Meanwhile, the gator will be kept under a watchful eye, since he could bite through the pipe that fills his tank with water or get sick, his caretaker says. Ralbovsky says Waldo is quicker and more aggressive than many of the other alligators that he works with, and does not seem accustomed to being handled by humans.
Eventually, Ralbovsky said, he hopes that Waldo will be a powerful example of the cruelty of keeping wild animals as pets. He said he hopes to take Waldo to shows where children will have a chance to touch him, his powerful jaws held closed by elastic bands.
Alligators typically grow to 11 or 12 feet long, and once Waldo is too big to be used as an educational tool, he'll be sent to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, where he'll be able to roam 13-acres among about 960 of his kin.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/07/21/rescuers_see_reptile_as_a_lesson/
