City park workers shocked themselves — and passersby – when they dragged a four-foot-long alligator from Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Lake on Sunday morning.
The alligator was reportedly spotted by park visitors early on Sunday, floating in the lake in an area that was often popular with children. The animal was lethargic, authorities say, possibly in shock because the cold temperatures in the lake did not meet those of the animal’s natural habitat.
Bring him south!! Poor guy!
Workers stunned as 4-foot alligator is hauled from Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake https://t.co/fFHXoOoKYj
— Kerri Rawson (@KerriRawson) February 19, 2023
According to a report published Sunday by Spectrum News NY1, the alligator was taken first to an animal care center and then to the Bronx Zoo. No one was injured by the animal while it was in the park.
Authorities appeared to suggest that the alligator could possibly have been someone’s pet — and that the person had attempted to release it into the wild — and they warned against others who might be tempted to take similar actions.
“Parks are not suitable homes for animals not indigenous to those parks-domesticated or otherwise. In addition to the potential danger to park goers this could have caused, releasing non-indigenous animals or unwanted pets can lead to the elimination of native species and unhealthy water quality,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement, adding that such actions could prove dangerous for the animals as well.
The alligator, at the time it was retrieved from the lake, was “very lethargic and possibly cold shocked since it is native to warm, tropical climates.”
A man — who gave only the name Moses — told The New York Post, “If I saw that gator, I would have kicked it back in the water! You’d never expect to see something like that here. But man, I feel bad for it. It shouldn’t be in a lake. Animals are like people, you know?”
“What? An alligator?! OK … oh, my goodness,” 37-year-old father Vijay Jacob told the Post. “That’s pretty terrifying since this part is a pretty kids-dominated section of the park. We come here a lot, but I’d never expect to see an alligator here. Maybe that’s why it’s so abandoned here today.”