CLEVELAND — Was someone trying
to avoid registering their exotic animal by dumping it down a sewer
drain? That’s what the Ohio Department of Agriculture will be
investigating.
A two-foot alligator was
rescued from the shallow waters of Big Creek in Cleveland on Thursday, near
Steelyard Commons.
A surveyor noticed it by a
sewer outfall and alerted Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District crews who were
doing maintenance at the agency’s Jennings Road Pump Station.
The alligator was not moving,
so to revive the nearly frozen animal, crews put her in a tub with warm water.
The alligator was being cared
for at a Sewer District facility in Cuyahoga Heights until the Ohio Department
of Agriculture provides instructions.
According to Jeannie Chapman,
the public information specialist for NEORSD, there is speculation the reptile
may have been released to avoid the cost of new exotic animal
regulations.
Ohio’s exotic ban registration
deadline was just this past Monday, Nov. 5. Owners of lions, tigers,
bears, certain snakes and alligators are required to register with the state,
pay fines, undergo background checks, get insurance and post signs on their
property – warning of dangerous animals.
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