Gator Found Roaming Michigan Street

Even with all the recent rainfall, I would think Michigan might not be swampy enough for an alligator. I would be wrong.

Police officers in Riverview, just south of Detroit, responded to several calls about a reptile wandering the streets of that suburb Sunday evening.

When they showed up they found a two foot long alligator looking for dinner. The gator was not real happy to be discovered, let alone captured by the officer, who immediately took the little bastard to a local reptile expert.

(Which is another story altogether, because how do the police know immediately where to find a reptile expert, and how do they know he's equipped to take in a gator? Click here for a story about reptile experts.)

The ongoing theory is old as time. Some local yahoo though it a good idea to get a baby alligator, but when it got too big too handle, let it loose in a panic. Probably when it started eyeballing the family cat.

This was not the first alligator found in Michigan this year. A three foot gator was removed from a sewage pond in Stanton in Montcalm County, and another three foot gator was found in a Tuscola County pond in the Thumb region.

As this old advertisement from Popular Mechanics shows, alligators are real easy to come by. They breed real well in captivity, and the babies are inexpensive to purchase. What's clearly missing is an educational system for how to feed and maintain an adult alligator once it reaches puberty.

One would think common sense and critical thinking skills would make people consider the future when making reptile purchases. But it appears that day is a long way off.