Alligator in Long Beach prompts SPCA warning

Long Beach is known for all sorts of marine wildlife, from harbor seals turning up on the beach to humpback whales leaping out of the ocean in the distance.

But the city’s Animal Control officers were in for a shock on Thursday, when a resident turned in a 14-inch American alligator.

The American alligator inhabits freshwater wetlands, and is typically found in the southeastern United States — not in a South Shore beach town.

The alligator was turned in to Animal Control by an unknown female who stated that she was moving. Long Beach officials notified the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which said it may have been kept as an exotic pet.

Both the Nassau County SPCA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation responded to investigate. The SPCA brought the reptile to The Center for Science Teaching and Learning located at the Tanglewood Preserve in Rockville Centre.

Authorities have come across a number of abandoned reptiles in the past several years, in communities such as Baldwin and Mastic Beach. However, the small alligator in Long Beach was not discovered roaming a supermarket parking lot, as was the case in Baldwin two years ago, and the SPCA said that it was turned in to Animal Control in a tank.

Still, SPCA officials expressed concern, and said that it was yet another example of illegal alligators being found on Long Island.

“These alligators are not meant to be pets,” the SPCA said. “They can grow upwards of 10 feet and cause serious bodily harm.”

The SPCA says that anyone possessing an alligator in New York can be slapped with a violation and a fine of up to $150 — and abandoning one in a public place is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

The SPCA is urging anyone who has information regarding a person in possession of dangerous animals to call 516-THE-SPCA.