Pet alligator, cat carcasses found in backyard
Alligator Jaxson / Yonhap
A 2.5-meter alligator has been found with two cat carcasses in the backyard of a suburban Los Angeles home, reports said.
Animal control officers seized the alligator, estimated to be about 40 years old, and asked neighbors whether pets around the area had been disappearing over the past four decades, according to Los Angeles Animal Services Commander Mark Salazar.
It is illegal to raise wild animals in the city.
“We tried to give him a good home,” Ron Gorecki, who helped his sister care for the alligator, told the Los Angeles Times. He said the alligator, named Jaxson, was his brother-in-law’s “pride and joy.”
Someone complained after seeing Jaxson in the backyard of the home in August. Animal control officers searched through the house then, but failed to find her.
They made a surprise visit on Monday, but the family would not let them in. So the officers obtained a search warrant.