Kenny Guido
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Alligator found basking in Huntington Village
BY MICHAEL AMON
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April 21, 2007, 8:24 PM EDT
All spring's harbingers were on display on Saturday afternoon -- gorgeous blue skies, budding flowers, birds fluttering through the trees, an alligator sunbathing by a Huntington Village pond.
Wait a minute.
"Generally speaking," said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA, "alligators are not found in ponds in Long Island."
Yet there it was -- 30-inches long, toothy and leathery green with yellow stripes -- sitting on the side of Pauldings Pond, a small pool of golden reeds at the intersection of Southdown Road and Tanyard Lane.
To be exact, it was an American alligator, 3 years old, gender unknown, native to the South and illegal in New York State, Gross said.
Suffolk County police and two SPCA officers captured the alligator about 3 p.m. after a woman who leads a nature group discovered the reptile an hour earlier, authorities said.
Now the SPCA is looking for its owner, offering a $500 reward to anyone with information that helps convict the person who released the alligator. The owner could face 1 year in jail and $1,000 in fines if convicted on charges of animal cruelty and illegally possessing the alligator, Gross said.
"It's definitely animal cruelty," Gross said. "It's probably been raised in captivity from since it was a baby. It doesn't know how to hunt. And though today was warm, it surely would have died next winter."
Gross said the number of cases involving illegal possession or release of a reptile in Suffolk had tripled in the last year to almost 90. He urged those who want to get rid of their constrictor snakes, alligators, crocodiles and other illegal animals to call the SPCA. "We won't prosecute if you turn them over," he said.
BY MICHAEL AMON
[email protected]
April 21, 2007, 8:24 PM EDT
All spring's harbingers were on display on Saturday afternoon -- gorgeous blue skies, budding flowers, birds fluttering through the trees, an alligator sunbathing by a Huntington Village pond.
Wait a minute.
"Generally speaking," said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA, "alligators are not found in ponds in Long Island."
Yet there it was -- 30-inches long, toothy and leathery green with yellow stripes -- sitting on the side of Pauldings Pond, a small pool of golden reeds at the intersection of Southdown Road and Tanyard Lane.
To be exact, it was an American alligator, 3 years old, gender unknown, native to the South and illegal in New York State, Gross said.
Suffolk County police and two SPCA officers captured the alligator about 3 p.m. after a woman who leads a nature group discovered the reptile an hour earlier, authorities said.
Now the SPCA is looking for its owner, offering a $500 reward to anyone with information that helps convict the person who released the alligator. The owner could face 1 year in jail and $1,000 in fines if convicted on charges of animal cruelty and illegally possessing the alligator, Gross said.
"It's definitely animal cruelty," Gross said. "It's probably been raised in captivity from since it was a baby. It doesn't know how to hunt. And though today was warm, it surely would have died next winter."
Gross said the number of cases involving illegal possession or release of a reptile in Suffolk had tripled in the last year to almost 90. He urged those who want to get rid of their constrictor snakes, alligators, crocodiles and other illegal animals to call the SPCA. "We won't prosecute if you turn them over," he said.