police find gator in Ohio basement

[Demovictory9]

The homeowner said her son bought the gator at a reptile flea market 25 years ago and had kept it in the basement ever since, police said.
The voluntarily surrendered the gator and the Ohio Department of Agriculture removed it from the home, police said.
The gator from Groveport was in good condition.
"It didn't require any special care," Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Shelby Croft told CNN.
Alligators are banned in the Ohio, thanks to Senate Bill 310, which prohibits the possession of hyenas, lions, tigers, alligators, bears and several other wild animals.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/us/ohio-alligator-found-basement-trnd/index.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And i'm freaked out by the centipedes in mine!

[tonedevil]

2. Perhaps centipede control...

was why he got the gator in the first place.

[irisblue]

3. Cause of Terry Thompson in Zanesville in 2011, letting loose caged wild animals

Source-https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-emerges-model-exotic-animal-rules/amKpkKTR4VzNvPoD8IwYrO/


Snip--"In the late afternoon hours of Oct. 18, 2011, 62-year-old Terry Thompson opened the cage doors that contained his lions, tigers, bears, wolves and more on his Zanesville farm and set them free. Then he turned a gun on himself.

Reports of wild animals running loose quickly started pouring into Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz’s office. He didn’t know how many animals Thompson kept on the property or how much of a head start they had. But he did know this: Sunset was 90 minutes away."

Lutz quickly gave the order to his deputies: Put down any animal off the property or close to leaving the property.

“There is no way we could have those types of animals loose in our neighborhoods,” Lutz said."

more at article.

[rurallib]

4. Wow - that is quite a story

[irisblue]

5. Yeah. I cannot see a need for exotic animal trade.

[Alliepoo]

6. Groveport, huh?

I live a few miles from there. Doesn’t surprise me in the least.

[kskiska]

7. I remember the time they found a tiger

living in a NYC apartment house.