2 suspects arrested for releasing alligator in LA lake

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Police arrest 2 people suspected of releasing alligator in Los Angeles lake
at 14:33 on August 24, 2005, EST.
DAISY NGUYEN

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two people were arrested Wednesday for allegedly turning an alligator loose in a small city lake, where the reptile has evaded capture while drawing many spectators.

The two people were taken into custody at a home where officers also seized other alligators, turtles and snakes.

The Machado Lake alligator was first seen Aug. 12 and has drawn crowds of the curious, who look through binoculars or lob treats such as jelly doughnuts into the water.

A Colorado gator wrangler tried for two days last week to capture the reptile. A crew from Florida's Gatorland attraction started scouring the lake Tuesday and offered to take the gator back with them if the city doesn't want to keep it.

"We have a (44-hectare) park where alligators live a long, happy, sheltered life," Gatorland spokeswoman Michelle Harris said. "We think he would make a nice fit."

Gatorland's team of four offered to do the job for free, not including travel expenses.

But the gator's fame appears to have rubbed off on Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

"They offered to take it back, but we haven't decided that's the right thing to do," Hahn said. "After all, it's an L.A. gator."

Television crews have staked out the lake, but the gator has generally been camera shy. Rarely have people seen much more than its eyes poking above the surface of the water in recent days.

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Hey, Reyn. I noticed that story and have been following it. Where in the world did those two get all those creatures? Hmmmm. My alligator has gone missing. Maybe...........

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Quite a treat for LA, I would imagine.

Hope they know what they are doing if they decide to keep it.

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Letty wrote:

Hey, Reyn. I noticed that story and have been following it. Where in the world did those two get all those creatures? Hmmmm. My alligator has gone missing. Maybe...........

I always wonder what's going through people's minds when they keep exotic animals. They're best in the wild.

Why can't people just be happy with a dog or cat?

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Nobody is taking our L.Alligator away from us. We love him. P.S. He loves sushi

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The biggest crime here is the introduction of an animal into an environment where it doesn't belong. Perhaps that was the goal of the people who released the alligator, though, unless the animal was a gravid female it couldn't have reproduced, and, regardless, there is little chance that it could have spread.

Alien species can have a drastic effect on any ecosystem, such as the water hyacinth or kudzu vine in the South or the zebra mussel in the Great Lakes, but I suspect that the furor over the alligator is that it is a large predator, and people have little tolerance for large predators, such as cougars, bears, wolves, and crocodilians because of our primal fear of predators that seems to have persisted to the present day. Vast ecosystems have been thrown into disarray because of the extirpation of large predators. One theory of the extinction of the megafauna of the late pleistocene in the new world was the killing off of many of the predators by the newly arrived humans, which severly upset the ecoysystem ending with the elimination of many species at the end of the Pleistocene.

The reaction of some of the public was interesting in that they almost adopted the animal and wanted it to stay there. This is not an unexpected reaction from people living in a huge city so isolated from the natural world.

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"Reggie" has become quite a celebrity here in LA. Apparently one of the people arrested was ex-LAPD. See even ex-cops have a warm spot for "cuddly" creatures. That is, until they grow too large.

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I'd like to know who put the alligator in my pond! There is an alligator that is about five foot long in my pond. It appeared here right after Katrina. I am sure it didn't swim all the way up here to Northern Louisiana. I have goldfish and new turtles that have been rescued and were let loose in that pond. Now, I'm afraid all I will have left is a fat alligator and nothing else!

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Contact your local animal shelter--they might be able to give you some names and numbers for Reptile Experts.

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I kept for a while but deleted, perhaps just yesterday, an article in the LA Times about Reggie, that the alligator was at least temporarily doing a good job to bring that mess of a pond back to a more ecological state, given the exotic species already in there conflicting with native species.

If I run across the article again, I'll post it.

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Thanx Osso! I only had four goldfish in the pond. Mostly have catfish, bass, brim, and had nearly 20 turtles! I don't mind the gator clearing out the water moccasins one bit though!

Noddy,

Thanx. I will call them tomorrow. I'm just really worried about my cats going down to the pond. Can't stand the thought of anything hurting them!

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MA, I was talking about the california alligator...

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Back in Venice, in the early seventies, there was a band called the Canaligators...

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We have a local rival to Stonehenge (and several other megalithic rings) including a picturesque pond that was stocked with very expensive koi.

Over the years the pond has become a back-to-nature depository for people who no longer want to deal with goldfish.

The local heron much prefer mature koi to mature goldfish. Unfortunately the lust of the hunt is more powerful for the herons than the taste of the koi.

At least your critter isn't a picky eater.

By the by, neither koi nor goldfish (carp) are native to the Poconos. The heron is.

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The alligator isn't native to that place and neither are the exotic takingoverfish. The longer it takes to get Reggie the alligator out of there, to some extent it might be for the better.

Sorry, not link queen.

On herons, we have them here in Humboldt, and we had them there, and I love them, large squawking shitters though the night herons on my block may have been...

but I don't know what counts as native for them..

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We have plenty of herons! White ones, grey ones, etc. I love to watch them fly into the pond and land! Such majestic looking birds.

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Where I live in BC, we have lots of the Great Blue Herons. I always figure they look so prehistoric.

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bioeco/gbheron.jpg

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Momma Angel--

Can you post a warning for your herons?

I've read that they can sense large reptiles approaching by the vibrations in the water, but you might want to advice your local herons to turn on the radar.

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Just keep feeding it those jellydonuts. Sooner or later, it's going to kill somebody. I think Phoenix said there was a law against feeding the gators in Florida for just that reason.

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Noddy,

LOL. Well, I can sure try to warn those birds but I can't guarantee they will listen. Have you ever just sat and watched one? They can stand and not move for what seems like forever.

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