An “extremely overweight” alligator that had been living near a Coca-Cola plant in Florida has been relocated and put on a diet, according to Croc Encounters, a rescue in Tampa.
The 9-foot, 450-pound alligator was removed from its home near the Coca-Cola plant in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa, after recent media coverage. Someone tore a hole in the fence surrounding a retention pond where the gator was living, and nearby residents became worried he would come to harm.
Trapper Greg Pollock captured the rotund reptile and brought him to Croc Encounters, where they named him Coca-Cola.
“It’s rumored the alligator was being fed ham and chicken by employees at surrounding businesses and likely other people as well. Not only is it illegal to feed alligators in the wild but it’s unhealthy for them,” Croc Encounters wrote on Facebook.
“This alligator is extremely overweight and now accustomed to getting fed by people,” Croc Encounters said. “Once people start feeding alligators they become a nuisance by no fault of their own and must be removed from the wild as they begin to approach people for food.”
“He’s very overweight. He’s got to slim down. It’s unhealthy,” Croc Encounters founder John Paner told Fox13.
“All of our alligators get a mix of pellet diet,” Paner told WFLA. “We’ll also feed fish, we also feed chicken, we’ll do that on a regular basis, and hopefully he’ll slim down a bit.”
Croc Encounters rescues nuisance alligators that may otherwise be killed, and offers tours where visitors can view the reptiles.
Nuisance alligators are defined as being over 4 feet long and considered a threat to people, pets or property, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Because healthy alligator populations exist in all available habitat in all of Florida’s 67 counties, nuisance alligators are generally not relocated to the wild, where their introduction can lead to territorial fights and death, according to the FWC. Nuisance alligators become the contracted trapper’s property to sell for hide or meat, or to sell live to a zoo or farm.
Story via TMX