Missing Alligator No Laughing Matter
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By Nancy Hogland
While an alligator reported missing in early June from the Sunrise Beach area served as fodder for many a joke, some weren’t amused.
It served as a reminder that Missouri’s only law regulating ownership of dangerous animals requires that they be properly registered with the Missouri county where the animal resides. Failure to comply is a Class C Misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of up to 15 days in jail and a fine of up to $300.
The law covers tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, margays, cheetahs, mountain lions, bobcats, Canadian lynx, jaguarondi, wolves, hyenas or coyotes and deadly and/or poisonous reptiles that are more than 8 feet in length.
“Unfortunately, there’s not much to stop people from purchasing and keeping these animals,” said Camden County Sheriff Tony Helms . “We told the owner of the missing alligator that he had to register it, but other than charging him with failure to control an animal, which we decided against, there wasn’t much more we could do.”
Helms said this wasn’t the only instance of wild animals in his county. In 2004, seven Bengal tigers were transferred to Wild Animal Orphanage and their Gravois Mills owners were charged with endangerment and animal abuse after the tigers escaped from their enclosures.
Last year, after a volunteer at a roadside zoo in Warrenton was mauled by a tiger who escaped from his cage and a 16-year-old employee at Predator World in Branson was attacked by three tigers, Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute, a national animal advocacy organization, to encourage the Missouri legislature to ban the practice of keeping dangerous wild animals as pets.
This year the Kentucky based Primate Rescue Center also started pushing for stricter laws governing sales in Missouri when it was learned that the two attacks by chimpanzees were both linked to the state. The center’s founder, April Truitt said Chimp-party, a Festus, Mo. based company, sold the chimp that in February mauled a Connecticut woman as well as the chimp that three months ago attacked a Winston, Mo police officer.
However, while Missouri legislators looked at two new bills earlier this year that would have added guidelines and restrictions to the books, no further action has been being taken. The two bills are HB 426 Large Carnivore Act, introduced by Rep. Mike Sutherland (R-Dist. 99), and SB 227, which modified provisions relating to dangerous animal registration, introduced by Sen. Tom Dempsey (R –Dist. 23).
In the meantime, Petty said the Division of Family Services is investigating the alligator situation because a small child lived in the home where the owner allegedly admitted to allowing the four-to-five-foot-long alligator to roam free.
Helms said because there have been no alligator sightings, and because the alligator escaped from a residence near the Lake, he thinks it may have escaped into the water and then gotten been chopped up by a boat motor.
“As crazy as this sounds, the alligator was supposed to be very acclimated to humans – not afraid of them – so if it was still alive, I think someone would have seen it by now,” he said. “I’d say if it’s not spotted by July 4, it’s most likely been chopped into fish bait.”
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History website, www.flmnh.ufl.edu, while alligators typically reside in the Southeastern United States, hibernating during the winter in burrows that they construct, adult alligators can survive freezing conditions if they are in water.
They submerge their body but keep their nostrils projecting above the water surface so that when the surface freezes they can still breathe. Essentially their upper body becomes trapped in the ice. Alligators can also survive completely below ice, going for 8 hours without taking a breath, because the freezing water slows their metabolic rate down to very low levels.
They eat a wide variety of small invertebrates, including insects and small fish and frogs. As they grow larger, their dietary range increases to include larger prey, eventually feeding on fish, turtles, small mammals, birds and reptiles – and even small dogs and other pets.
The site warns that feeding alligators is extremely dangerous because it encourages them to approach humans aggressively, expecting food.
This is a satirical website. Don't take it Seriously. It's a joke.
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