Gator Goes From Pan to Fire

You may recall a post earlier in the month, called "Catching Alligator Feeders, Killing Alligators," about the Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s sting to catch alligator feeders, punish them, and then kill the alligators.

In a surreal twist, as described in "Crusty the Gator Wins Reprieve in Florida" (AP, 7/22/06), an anonymous donor has contributed $1,150 to trap a gator named Crusty, who would have been killed (oops, "euthanized"). Wait, here comes the surreal part: the deal is that instead of a death sentence, Crusty will join gators Speedy, Boomer, and Freddy, AT AN ANIMAL EXHIBIT in the Seminole Reservation in Hollywood (FL).

That scares me. I don’t know what they mean by "animal exhibit," but from what I have seen and read, they usually consist of: unnatural environment, stress, constant poking and maybe even gator wrestling, and having your picture taken with the gator. Oh, and let’s not forget that people will profit from "exhibiting" the gator.

In 2004, according to above article, more than 7,000 gators "had to be killed" (really?) after becoming too accustomed to people.

I’ll wager that someday soon, Speedy, Boomer, Freddy, or Crusty will "have to be killed" as well.

I say, kill them now rather than taking them from their homes to abuse and demean them.