Grown-Up Gators

“Now they’ve grown and they’re not cute anymore.”

Humane Department officer Tina Petix

Photo by Tim Pearce (Creative Commons)

Any Harry Potter fans out there? Remember when Hagrid hatched a baby dragonette and it quickly grew into a full-size, fire-breathing dragon with a nasty disposition?

Except for the fire-breathing part, folks in Kennett, Missouri (population 10,547) are living the story. But it’s not so funny in real life.

Fourteen months ago, a guy set up a clandestine pet shop out of a trailer in a parking lot and sold 50 baby alligators. Humane Department officer Tina Petix says that although the alligators were “cute” when they were the size of a pencil, they’re not so cuddly when they’re three feet long with big teeth, big appetites and bad attitudes. That’s why they’re illegal in Kennett.

Struggling to get the growing gator problem under control, Ms. Petix is offering an alligator amnesty to anyone willing to turn in their pets—no questions, no penalty. But so far only three alligators have been turned in.

Forty-seven to go.

Read more → Jim Salter, Grown-up gators a challenge for Missouri town, Business Week, April 6, 2012.