Gator is lastest exotic at shelter

Animal Services to house reptile while refuge sought

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published January 01, 2008

OLYMPIA – "Gator," one of the newer occupants at Thurston County Animal Services, has his own room and a pool — but it's unlikely that the dogs and cats who live there would want to share.

A landlord at a Lacey duplex found the American alligator abandoned in a small aquarium on Dec. 13. Gator had been left there by the occupants, who were evicted, Animal Services Officer Ray Spragg said.

The alligator is about 4-feet long and is estimated to be around 4-years old. He feeds on baked chicken that is lowered into his pool with barbecue tongs, and basks under a heat lamp in a back room off the kennels where barking dogs sit in cages, waiting for new homes.

Animal Services director Susanne Beauregard said she's not sure of Gator's gender, because she wasn't planning on asking for a date, she joked.

Animal Services officials are trying to find a home for Gator at an animal refuge and are looking at one in Anacortes, called "Predators of the Heart," and another one in Portland.

Gator is the second alligator taken in by Animal Services this year.

In November, Animal Services took a caiman and two alligator snapping turtles that were illegally being kept by a man who raised exotic pets at a residence in Thurston County.

Owning an alligator is illegal in Washington, according to a law that went into effect in July that bars people from keeping dangerous wild animals. "A person shall not own, possess, keep, harbor, bring into the state, or have custody or control of a potentially dangerous wild animal ...," reads part of the law.

However, people who owned exotic animals prior to July were grandfathered in and may keep those animals for the rest of the animal's life.

"We would hate to see people wrongfully abandoning these animals (posing a threat to both public safety and the animal's welfare)," Inga Gibson, Washington state director of The Humane Society of the United States said in a press release.

"People who are unable to care for their animals (whether wild/exotic or other) are asked to contact their local animal control or humane society," she said.

Officers with Animal Services have dealt with scores of exotic pets and wildlife through the years, including a Canadian lynx that was let loose by an owner north of Rochester about five years ago, Beauregard said. Animal Services had to catch the lynx after residents complained it was eating neighborhood cats and raccoons, and even menacing a kid on a tricycle, she said.

Spragg is one of the field officers — along with Ken Maynard and Erika Quinn-Ellenbecker — who work for Animal Services. The three handle roughly 200 calls each every month, Spragg said.

Bats, tarantulas, monkeys, snakes and stranded harbor seals are some of the wildlife Spragg said the officers deal with.

The problem of owners not being able to handle their exotic pet is a common one, Beauregard said. Some people buy one when it is small and don't realize they will not be able to take care of it as it grows larger, and larger, and larger, she said. Sometimes they end up calling Animal Services, she said.

It is unlikely a pet owner would be able to care for Gator when it reaches maturity — adult alligators can grow as long as 18 feet and weigh more than 1,000 pounds.

But Spragg and Beauregard said that since moving to Animal Services, Gator has not been a difficult guest; It is docile, and unlike the last alligator they had, is quiet and doesn't hiss at handlers.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.