Wilkinsburg Police Grab A 4 Foot Alligator – By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Most officers don’t learn how to wrestle an alligator at the police academy. A task like that takes special training, like watching the Crocodile Hunter’s “Croc Files” on the Discovery Channel.
That’s how Wilkinsburg police officers knew what to do when they received a complaint about an alligator yesterday afternoon. Wilkinsburg police Lt. Todd Ruggiero gave this account: A resident went to the borough’s code enforcement office to complain about an alligator in a back yard in the 1100 block of Rebecca Avenue.https://www.transaction-2007.com/
Officers at first thought maybe it was only a lizard — perhaps an iguana — but Sgt. John Snyder and others went out to check. At first they didn’t see anything, but as they rounded a corner of the house, they noticed an alligator lying in the back yard. At 4 foot 1 inch, it probably was hard to miss. https://www.transaction-2007.com/
The yard also contained a small swimming pool, presumably for the alligator to cool off in.
The officers called for Tom Proctor, the K-9 officer, who arrived with a dog snare, which is a long pole with a cord at the end. Proctor put the cord around the alligator’s head, and another officer, Richard Grande, threw a shirt over its head and worked to restrain the gator from behind.
How did they know to put a covering over the gator’s head?
“They watched that on Discovery’s ‘Croc Files,’ ” said Ruggiero.
Snyder and Officer Doug Yuhouse secured the alligator’s mouth and legs with duct tape. Then officers picked up the alligator and put it in the back of a police car, where it extended the length of the back seat.
The alligator hissed and twisted during the ride to the police station, and it wasn’t particularly happy in the holding cell, either.
Police called Triangle Pet Control Services in McKees Rocks, which took the alligator to its facility. There, animal control officer Paul McIntyre took off the duct tape and secured the animal. “I just watch and be careful. I’ve been in this business 18 years, and I’ve never been bit yet,” he said. McIntyre said this gator seemed meaner than some of the others he’s dealt with. “He bites, snaps and moves at everything that moves in front of him,” he said.
He said Triangle gets calls “every once in a while” about alligators.
“People buy them as pets and let them go once they get too big. They shouldn’t even be buying pets like this,” McIntyre said. He thinks it likely is an American alligator, about 6 or 7 years old. Police, as well as code enforcement officials, plan to investigate the ownership and whether any laws were broken. Ruggiero expects the owner to be cited under exotic reptile ordinances.
“The basis of it was it was out in the back yard where kids could have easily walked into the yard…. The alligator could have escaped. It wasn’t a secure premises,” he said.
Ruggiero said the occupant of the house was not at home when the alligator was apprehended. He said the yard has a fence, but it is “ratty” and has holes in it.
McIntyre said Triangle will see if the owner calls. If necessary, it will find a new home for the alligator.
But don’t even think of its going to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Herb Ellerbrock, a reptile keeper at the zoo, said the zoo doesn’t take donations of alligators. “We have enough animals right now,” he said. The zoo already has three alligators of its own, not to mention about a dozen crocodiles.
Based on a description, Ellerbrock said the means to restrain the alligator seemed to be OK. He said the duct tape comes off fairly easily, and that duct or masking tape can be used for such situations. To Ellerbrock, who had a pet alligator as a child, it isn’t an unheard of pet. “A lot of people have alligators for pets,” he said.
Most alligators living in a house, he said, usually grow to only about 5 or 6 feet, not the 10 feet noted in books.