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Alligator sent to Brandywine Zoo after Chester County drug bust

Courtesy of the Chester County District Attorney's Office

During a drug bust at a home in South Coatesville, Pennsylvania, law enforcement officials found an alligator living in a kitchen. That alligator now lives at the Brandywine Zoo.

 

According to DNREC officials, the zoo agreed to care for the two-foot-long juvenile American alligator at the request of Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan. In a statement, Hogan said the arrangement ensures the alligator “will be treated humanely.”

Officials say the animal will be featured in the zoo’s educational alligator exhibit this summer.

It will then go to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in Florida, which loans the Brandywine Zoo alligators for its summer exhibit.

 

“Drug dealers will do just about anything to project an image of danger in order to protect their drugs and cash,” said Hogan. "These drug traffickers kept an alligator in the house. But at the end of the day, the police seized their drugs and money, and the alligator is headed to the zoo.”

Brandywine Zoo Director Brint Spencer said in a statement that the zoo “is glad we could be of assistance to Chester County law enforcement in placing the alligator in a healthy environment."
 

The Brandywine Zoo is closed for constructionthis month. It is preparing to implement a $13 million master planto upgrade zoo facilities and focus on smaller animals.

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
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