ANN ARBOUR NEWS (Michigan) 12 August 05 Case of see ya later, alligator Reptile found abandoned at local veterinary clinic (Khalil E. Hachem)
Steve Marsh has found several abandoned animals near the Animal Kingdom Veterinary Hospital - guinea pigs, cats, even exotic snakes.
But he never expected what he found a week ago - a healthy, 42-inch-long, 11-pound, full-toothed American alligator.
Someone left the reptile in a well-secured box on the doorstep of the clinic along Ann Arbor-Saline Road last Friday. Marsh, an employee at the clinic, said it took him about 45 minutes to get the box open.
"He was well cared for,'' Marsh said. "He is pretty healthy.''
Although Marsh was surprised by the find, Sherry Silk was not. Silk, director of operations at the Humane Society of Huron Valley, said her organization has this year rescued three alligators and six caimans, a smaller relative of the alligator.
That alligator and several like it are being rescued in the area because of easy access to exotic animals on the Internet, Silk said.
"People buy them online and leave them behind,'' she said. "It's a problem.''
A quick search Thursday on the Internet netted a half-dozen Web sites offering alligators for $100 each, including shipping.
Marsh said most likely someone had the alligator as a pet and abandoned it because it grew too big to handle. American alligators live for up to 50 years, can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds and grow to lengths of more than 12 feet. He believes the alligator was left at the clinic's doorstep because the clinic treats exotic animals.
Tom Goniea, a biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Lansing, said no Michigan laws prohibit keeping an alligator as a pet. However, some local municipalities impose restrictions on exotic animals.
Both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti prohibit residents from keeping wild animals as pets.
Alligators are more common in the southern part of the United States and cannot survive Michigan's cold weather,
Goniea said. "They will freeze,'' he said.
Most people don't realize that alligators grow quickly and become difficult to manage, Goniea said. "Wild animals don't make good pets,'' he said.
James Weiss, a reptile expert at Pet City in Ypsilanti and owner of Weiss Reptile, said it is not that unusual for local people to keep alligators. He knows of nearly 20 people in the Ypsilanti area who own alligators - and buy rats and fish from pet stores to feed them. Weiss said they buy the reptiles online from alligator farms in Florida that will ship them anywhere in the country.
Weiss said he does not sell alligators because they grow about a foot a year and develop strong jaws after four years, strong enough to break a broom handle. "They can be dangerous around kids,'' he said.
Silk said the Humane Society keeps the reptiles for a few days and then gives them to rescue groups that can provide a safe environment for the animal. Some of the groups transport the alligators to southern states, she said. Others keep them to show at schools.
The city of Ann Arbor requires the clinic to hold abandoned pets for 10 days, and if no one claims them, they become the property of the clinic. If that happens with the alligator, Marsh said, he's not sure what the clinic will do with it.
It should not be released into the wild, he said, because pet alligators have little fear of humans or might carry viruses that could be harmful to wild alligators. It's also unlikely that a zoo or a nature center would accept the alligator, he said, and euthanizing a healthy animal is never an easy decision.
In the meantime, the alligator is staying in an 8-foot metal cage and feeding on crayfish.
alligator Reptile found abandoned at local veterinary clinic