Teen to Learn ‘Expensive Lesson’ After Gator Abuse
Getty Images/Alicia Kern-Johnston
A Florida teenager accused of abusing a baby alligator is expected to “learn a very expensive lesson,” according to a sheriff.
WKMG reports that a 14-year-old boy was arrested after a Stetson University public safety officer said she observed him on surveillance cameras swinging a small alligator by its tail and kicking it at the school’s aquatic center on April 3, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
“We arrested a 14-year-old for twirling a baby alligator around,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “Obviously, abusing wildlife is not a way to spend your downtime. It’s a felony. You just do not abuse wildlife. Unfortunately, this young man is going to learn a very expensive lesson.”
The security officer told Volusia County deputies that the teen also held the animal while another child took photos and was seen kicking dirt at the reptile. When a deputy arrived, five youths at the Stetson Aquatic Center said they had only been fishing and denied knowing anything about an alligator, according to the report.
Stetson security requested that all five youths be banned from the facility, which is located on Lake Beresford and supports the university’s water research programs and rowing teams.
According to an arrest affidavit, the 14-year-old was booked into a juvenile detention center for allegedly possessing or harming an alligator without authorization from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is a level-4 felony.
AJ Ellis, a nuisance alligator trapper licensed by the commission, told Fox 35 that the alleged abuse of the animal was “pretty sick” and made him “pretty angry.”
“Florida law does not allow you to catch an alligator or many other animals without being licensed, having the proper permits, or during a regulated hunting season,” Ellis said. “It’s no different than kicking a puppy down the street or grabbing a puppy by the tail and swinging it over your head. I just don’t understand why someone would do something like that.”
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