I just love weird headlines: Conn. Officer Kills Lizard Found Menacing Chickens

[cali]

Reports of a large reptile roaming an eastern Connecticut town over the past few months have turned out to be true: A police officer shot a monitor lizard to death as it was attacking chickens at a resident's home.

Police in Ledyard say the resident called 911 on Sunday afternoon to report what she believed was an alligator in a chicken coop outside her home.

Police and the town's animal control officer found the large lizard attacking the homeowner's chickens. Police say an officer was forced to shoot the reptile because it threatened emergency responders.

Monitor lizards can be as big as alligators and are not native to Connecticut. Police believe the one killed Sunday had been an illegal pet and either escaped or was abandoned.



http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/conn-officer-kills-lizard-found-menacing-chickens-20070458

but I gotta ask, why did they have to kill the poor thing?

[clarice]

1. "Godzirra" nt

[pinboy3niner]

2. Dead lizards tell no tails. nt

[wild bird]

3. Monitors can be dangerous if you don't know how to handle them.

But with animal control there, they could have used one of those staffs with a loop at the end of it, looped it around the lizard's neck and took control of it.



It comes down to that we weren't there and we don't know how it was threatening the first responders, those things can move pretty fast when they need to.

[dem in texas]

4. how can people own a monitor lizard?

Think what would if it got loose down in Florida, would it eat the pythons or would the pythons eat the lizards?

[longship]

6. Then they'd have to import lions to eat the monitors.

Then, import elephants to get rid of the lions.

Then, of course, import mice to get rid of the elephants.

Import housecats to get rid of the mice.

Import dogs to get rid of the cats.

Import pythons to get rid of the dogs.

Import monitor lizards to get rid of the pythons.

Etc.

Sigh!

[kestrel91316]

10. Monitor lizards come in hundreds of species, lol. The largest is, of course, the Komodo dragon.

The smallest is supposedly the ackie monitor at 24" but I am pretty sure there is a smaller one.

[X_Digger]

11. They're already catching wild tegus and monitors

http://www.livescience.com/29218-images-exotic-lizards-tegus-florida.html

http://www.newsytype.com/8404-monitor-lizards-florida/

[Lasher]

5. Probably not a Komodo dragon

The much smaller savannah monitor would be a better guess.

[cthulu2016]

7. Some some lizard locates these menacing chickens, and a cop kills him?

Talk about blaming the victim.

[KittyWampus]

8. Kestrel previously explained sedating wildlife requires expertise not had by law enforcement.

And if I mistakenly named Kestrel, I apologize profusely to her.

[kestrel91316]

9. I certainly did say that. Not only do they need training and expertise, they need to be legally

authorized by the DEA to possess and use it. That's why the task of capturing dangerous wildlife falls to wildlife officials. They have the DEA license, the training, the special equipment, and the drug itself at hand.

M99 is typically the drug they use. If a human is accidentally hit, they die. End of story.