Published September 14, 2010

(OakleyOriginals/Flickr)

What do you with an alligator after it turns up in the Charles River?

PETA, the animal-rights group, has written to Wayne MacCallum, director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, asking to grant the stray gator “a chance at life.” I received a copy of this letter in an e-mail from a PETA spokesman, excerpted thus:

According to an article in The Boston Globe (attached), the alligator was captured and taken in by Rainforest Reptile, a facility that uses animals for public display and traveling exhibitions. Rainforest Reptile apparently intends to use the alligator for shows until the animal is too large for such purposes, after which it plans to send the animal to an alligator farm in Texas or Florida.

Alligators at such farms are often housed in concrete cells that are in stark contrast to their natural habitat of rivers, swamps, marshes, or lakes. And unlike the rivers and lakes in which most alligators live, these enclosures have no mud or vegetation for nest building. At farms, they are forced to live in an environment that is completely devoid of everything that is natural and important to them. Those who are killed for their skin and/or meat are often beaten on the head with metal pipes in order to immobilize them and prevent their hides from becoming damaged. The animals are then skinned—sometimes while they are still alive—and their hides are sold to be made into shoes, handbags, and other items.

I will add only this: No animal deserves to be captured by an organization whose website looks like this.