A Texas zoo said it had taken back an 8ft alligator which was stolen as an egg more than 20 years ago, then kept as a backyard pet.
In an Instagram post accompanying footage of three agents gingerly lifting the alligator into a truck and releasing it into a zoo enclosure, the state parks and wildlife department said: “Alligators don’t make good pets, y’all.”
A Texas parks & wildlife spokesperson said a game warden found the animal, named Tewa, during an unrelated investigation in Caldwell county last month.
A woman confessed to taking an egg from Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo, near Austin. She did not have a permit to keep the alligator as a pet.
In a Facebook post, a zoo staff member said: “We got a call from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department about an alligator that someone apparently had in their possession for over 20 years.
“Interesting part of the story is evidently they were volunteering here at Animal Farm, way back then, decades ago, and apparently stole this alligator … as an egg … put it in their pocket and took off.”
He added: “Being that technically we are the rightful owners of that alligator … a quick phone call and we were able to go out to this lady’s place about 50 miles from here, capture the alligator and bring her in and introduce her to the rest of our group out here. She’s going to live out the rest of her life.”
The woman who took the egg faces misdemeanor charges for illegal possession of an egg and possession of an alligator without a permit, KXAN, a local NBC affiliate, reported.
