In what is basically a tale of an urban myth becoming reality an alligator was recently cited in the Peconic River on Long Island, making it the 17th alligator spotted in New York within the last nine months, according to Nature World News.
For years people have joked about pet alligators being flushed down toilets in New York City and growing to monstrous proportions in the city's sewers. That's not quite the scenario playing out currently but the alligators certainly do not belong in New York.
The most recent sighting was by local resident Steve Hickey who spotted a three to four-foot-long gator on Saturday. The animal is still at large and state workers are searching for it with nets and poles baited with chicken, according to FOX5.
Matt Blaisings of NYS Environmental Conservation urges people to keep their distance if they encounter the gator.
"It's a wild animal, so I want to discourage anyone from handling or feeding it," Blaisings told Nature World News. "This is a public safety precaution at this time."
Alligators have been a problem for Long Island for years a while but in the last year sightings of alligators have skyrocketed, nearly half of all occurrences since 2003 have been in the last year, according to Science Recorder.
A member of the Emergency Animal Response team who wanted to remain anonymous because he conducts investigations in the black market told the New York Post that the problem stems from people picking up small alligators as pets and never expecting them to grow. Once they have a full size alligator they have no idea what to do with the animal so they end up releasing them despite the threat of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Steven Weinkselbaum thinks that a New York law is to be blamed for the released animals instead of pet owners. Owning an alligator is punishable by a fine of $250 and Weinkselbaum told the New York Post it was a "stupid law."
"There shouldn't be any laws against them," Weinkselbaum said. "Everyone gets them. They get them in California. They get them in Pennsylvania. They drive them back. You can't control this."
The alligators are not native to the environment found on Long Island and if they remain in the wild they will freeze to death during the winter.
