(KY) A wayward alligator gets reprieve, boot

[Guest guest]

http://www.kypost.com/2003/10/09/gator100903.html

 

By Shelly Whitehead

Post staff reporter

 

Judges see a lot of slimy characters in their courtrooms, often with

tales of how animal instincts and primal urges somehow turned them

against the law.

Dundee, the wayward alligator of Florence, was no different.

 

The instinctive urge for crawdads in nearby Utterback Creek prompted

his July 16 escape from his Florence home. And that escape is

ultimately what landed his owner, Sandy Smith, in front of Boone

District Judge Michael Collins Tuesday on a charge of harboring a

wild animal.

 

Smith, a laid-back 45-year-old self-employed contractor, has been a

bit mystified by the whole ordeal. What was the big deal? So his

toothy, three-foot-long American alligator took a quick jaunt across

Rosetta Drive for a crustacean canape? Wild animal ordinance or not,

Smith didn't see any harm in that.

 

But a lot of other people did, particularly Boone County Animal

Warden Becky Reiter, who is charged not only with enforcing local

animal control laws, but often retrieving the wild " pets " of those

who break such legal mandates.

 

Tuesday afternoon, Reiter was among those at the Burlington

courthouse where Dundee was finally getting his day in court.

 

And, as it turns out, there's apparently a little scaly reptile in

even the most warm-blooded judge, because Boone District Judge

Collins gave Smith and Dundee a second chance at life as a couple --

as long as it was somewhere else.

 

" He (Smith) agreed to get (the alligator) out of the county, " Reiter

said.

 

" He's got property someplace that he's going to take it to. He's been

given 60 days to do that, and if there's another occurrence of the

animal getting out, we will take immediate possession of it. But, if

there are no other incidents, they'll dismiss the charges. "

 

Last month, Smith told The Post that he has vacation property on Lake

Cumberland and has considered taking Dundee to that secluded south-

central Kentucky vista.

 

But after Tuesday's District Court meeting, Smith clammed up on his

plans for Dundee's future.

 

After his alligator's tale aired on television a while back, Smith

got to thinking. Perhaps his little 'gator could be a money-maker.

 

" It's gonna go down -- like a mystery, like 'Who shot J.R.?' " Smith

said, recalling the craze over the killing of the lead character in

the 1980 television drama, " Dallas. "

 

" This'll be 'Where's Dundee?' -- And we're going to let people bid on

the story of it. -- Then whatever we get out of it, we'll use to

build Dundee a home. "

 

So it's the county line for Dundee.

 

" That's the thing that worries me at this point -- it's going to

another community, " Reiter said.

 

" But then, maybe all this gave him the motivation to do the right

thing. "