Bensonhurst Man Arrested For Keeping 3-Foot-Long Alligator In Backyard Kiddie Pool
While others are fighting to make ferrets legal to own again in New York City, one Bensonhurst man is fighting to keep his pet alligator, Dino.
Victor Alexandria was cuffed, fined and saw his alligator confiscated last Tuesday, after authorities learned that he had been keeping the reptile in his home and in a shared backyard.
The Daily News reports:
A 3-foot-long gator was confiscated from a beastly Brooklyn man who sometimes kept the reptile with razor-sharp teeth in a wading pool in a shared yard behind his Bensonhurst digs.
Victor Alexandria, who dubbed the gator Dino and claims he’s raised the three-year-old reptile “since he fit in the palm of my hand,” was charged improper precaution of a wild animal, a misdemeanor, and with disorderly conduct for creating a hazardous condition.
Alexandria, 45, was released Thursday after a brief appearance in Brooklyn Criminal Court. He faces a $500 fine and up to year in jail if convicted.
The paper reports that Alexandria, who lives on Bay 40th Street, is vowing to fight the city.
“It won’t cause bodily harm to anybody if you treat him the right way and you give him goldfish,” Alexandria told the paper.
Apparently, few of his immediate neighbors knew of the toothie pet kept next door. And despite Alexandria’s protestations, the paper reports he has a lengthy rap sheet for taking his pets to the boardwalk, where some, like his birds, have bitten people.
