TAMPA - Florida probably has enough alligators, but the state is getting 22 more from Arizona.
Yeah, Arizona.
It seems the Western state known more for Gila monsters has alligators, too, even though they're illegal there without a permit that rarely is issued to average people.
That doesn't keep people from getting them as pets, said Russ Johnson, president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society, which takes in gators that the state's game officers and police confiscate.
The society operates a sanctuary where the seized reptiles are housed, but it's getting full, and gators don't do well in the 115 degrees of the desert-dry Phoenix summer.
"In the summer we have to create a habitat for them. We have the sprinklers on three times a day," Johnson said.
The gators were loaded aboard a plane bound for Tampa on Tuesday. They're headed for a sanctuary near Bushnell in Sumter County called Crocodile Creek Ranch. The sanctuary will pay the $1,393 shipping, but the reptiles are free.
The alligators aren't destined to become pricey handbags or nuggets in a restaurant appetizer. The society won't send gators to an alligator farmer.
"The last thing we want to do is have them killed," Johnson said.
The alligators include four in the 6-foot range and 18 smaller versions 3 to 4 feet long.
A few of the society's gators won't be shipped. They're too big, especially Clem, an 8-footer who goes a not-so-svelte 400 pounds.
Alligators in Arizona would be able to get by in the wild, Johnson said. The state isn't entirely cactus and rock. There are rivers and lakes with water year-round and no natural predators.
"They would be quite successful if they were released," Johnson said.
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