A Florida teen accused of abusing a baby alligator is "going to learn a very expensive lesson," a sheriff says. WKMG reports that a 14-year-old boy was arrested after a Stetson University public safety officer said she watched him on surveillance cameras swinging a small gator by its tail and kicking it at the school's aquatic center on April 3, according to the Volusia Sheriff's Office.
-
"We arrested a 14-year-old for twirling a baby alligator around," says Sheriff Mike Chitwood. "Obviously, abusing wildlife is not a way to spend your downtime, you know, 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 the teen also held the animal while another child took photos, and was seen kicking dirt on the reptile. When a deputy arrived, five kids at the Stetson Aquatic Center said they were just fishing and denied knowing anything about an alligator, the report states. Stetson security asked that all five be banned from the facility, which sits on Lake Beresford and supports the university's water research programs and rowing teams.
- An arrest affidavit states that the 14-year-old was booked into a juvenile detention center for allegedly possessing or harming an alligator without approval from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a level 4 felony.
AJ Ellis, a commission-licensed nuisance gator trapper, tells Fox 35 that the alleged alligator abuse is "just pretty sick" and makes him "pretty angry." "Florida law does not allow you to, to go catch an alligator or many other animals without being licensed, having the proper permits or, you know, during any sort of a regulatory hunting season," Ellis says. "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 know why somebody would do something like that."
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
