Exotic Indeed!

Alligators As Pets?

When people lead you into their home, exclaiming they have a new pet, you automatically look to your feet expecting a playful kitten to be dangling from your shoelaces or a puppy jumping up on your leg and begging for attention. One of the last things you would expect, is to look out to the garden and see an alligator lying sunning itself by the garden pond.

However, alligators are – surprisingly – a reasonably common and much sought after pet. While the prospect of keeping a three foot reptile as a pet may be exciting to some, many do not consider the extent to which they will grow. Keeping alligators as pets is banned in several countries. Within the United States, however, it is legal in many states, but a licence is required. The licence requires a lot of time and money to be invested in order to satisfy the regulations surrounding alligator ownership. Most licences are only granted to experienced handlers with existing suitable facilities.

Many reptiles grow larger than their owners expect, and are therefore abandoned or turned in to the police, as is suspected with a recent report from New York. It is illegal to keep an alligator as a pet in the state of New York, so police were suspicious when, on September the 14th this year, a man turned a two foot alligator in. The man claimed to have discovered the reptile in a nearby park, but police suspect it had been kept as a pet, and turned in when the owner realised it would grow too large. A bite from even a small alligator, when delivered in the right place, can prove fatal. Their strong jaws are not to be taken lightly; certainly not a pet you can curl up on the sofa with or take for walks in the park. However, some people appear to take them for a ride in the car, as you would a spaniel or poodle.

All alligators start out life as deceptively cute little lizard-like creatures. You can buy a 6-9 inch alligator from several pet stores. However, whilst in can comfortably fit into an aquarium tank, do not suspect for one minute that this won’t change. Many people think they can be tamed from this size, and can grow into completely loyal pets. Unfortunately, that has been disproven through several incidents. Alligators are born hunters, and must be treated with respect – and preferably a twelve foot barge pole.

Many pet alligators end up in zoos, or rescue homes. One of the major problems with this pet choice is that several ‘gator owners decide to buy a baby reptile, with the intention of releasing it into the wild when it gets too big. The problem then, is that the alligator has grown used to human company, and is subsequently fearless. It will associate humans with food, and venture into residential areas fearlessly.

Moral of the story: get a cat!