He claims he tried to make the changes, but they ignored his emails and calls requesting clarification. Because I don’t see a DEC response indicating otherwise, I’m going to assume it’s true for now. He’s housed it successfully for 30 years, and they could just take it if he happened to die without leaving sufficient care for the alligator. As it stands, the alligator is presently taking the “space” of another alligator, so I’m not sure how this is a net benefit. If there was an alligator out there waiting for a spot to avoid being killed, it’s probably quite dead now.
It also seems like the officers injured the alligator during the transition. Given that he had spent a six figure sum modifying his home to better house it, and had it cared for by a veterinarian, I’m inclined to believe him when he says it did not have spinal complications prior. This is in part due to my relatively low faith officers as a whole— theoretically officers for humans should be the most disciplined, and I am having some difficulty thinking much higher for these conservation officers. So if you’re correct about limited space, and he’s correct about the injuries, I’m counting two alligators worse off than before.
I’m just not seeing any big wins here. I don’t know enough about alligators to say whether it was a true danger to the people he let it interact with (though three decades says no), or whether it could one day suffer enough mental degradation to become a danger. I’d of course defer to expertise but until then I think it would’ve been better to serve him notice that he can never again let it interact with anyone without some sort of barrier between. If he continued to do so, and there was real concern that it might someday become violent, then seize it. It’s definitely more American to jump straight to officers taking it away though, as it happens with anything but guns.