JOURNAL INQUIRER (Manchester, Connecticut) 02 August 05 No croc! Vernon man asks town to take 2-foot-long alligator off his hands (Jason Rowe)
Vernon: Despite the recent spate of heat and humidity, Vernon is still a long way from the Florida Everglades.
But don't tell that to one scaly resident who spent the better part of Monday at the town's animal control office.
Animal control officials were housing a 2-foot-long alligator, which was surrendered to their office by a Windermere Avenue man earlier in the day.
While the office has dealt before with unusual reptiles like caimans, Animal Control Officer Craig P. Segar said this was the first time he has seen an alligator in his office.
Segar has been with the town for more than 20 years.
Although the alligator looked harmless sitting in the modest cage that officials provided for him Monday afternoon, that could all change once the reptile matures.
Segar said it's not unusual for alligators to grow as large as 6 feet long.
Even at his small size, the gator still possesses sharp teeth, said Jerold W. Casida, the town's assistant animal control officer.
Officials are uncertain of the alligator's age or its gender.
Oddly enough, the man who turned in the gator had been the subject of at least one resident inquiry into the type of animals kept in his home.
In June, a police received an anonymous call reporting that the unidentified man was keeping an alligator at a previous home on High Street.
Animal control officers responded to the home, but all they found was a 6-foot red-tailed boa constrictor, which was owned and cared for legally by the same man.
At the time, officials thought the snake might have been mistaken for an alligator by a neighbor who noticed the snake's owner walking around with it outside.
On Monday, that same man called animal control officials to ask them to take the alligator off of his hands.
"The guy just wanted to do the right thing by the animal and not get in trouble," Casida said.
Both Casida and Segar said the animal appeared to be in good health and well cared for.
The alligator is apparently used to dining on smelt, and both men commented that he appeared to be well fed, if not a little pudgy.
Segar said he is not sure how the man acquired the alligator.
But while the reptile seemed acclimated to his surroundings Monday afternoon, it will not become a permanent fixture in town.
Segar said his office has already contacted a Massachusetts-based rainforest rescue program, which has agreed to take in the alligator.
The animal was expected to make the journey to Massachusetts today or Wednesday, Segar said.
While this is the first time that Vernon officials have encountered a local resident keeping an alligator as a pet, a Shelton man made news in April 2003 when the state Department of Environmental Protection denied his request to possess three alligators in a home he was renting in Bridgeport.
That man, John Boyko, had kept the alligators as pets for nearly a decade.
But once Bridgeport officials discovered the large reptiles in November 2002, the animals were confiscated and taken to the city-based Beardsley Zoo.
In denying Boyko's request to house the gators, DEP officials concluded that the department has no legal base to grant him a permit because there are no state regulations allowing for the possession of alligators in Connecticut.
Officials also concluded that the possession of three 5- to 6-foot alligators could constitute a "potential threat to humans."
Vernon man asks town to take 2-foot-long alligator off his hands