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Bucks County officials wrangle another gator

Bucks County's Gator Wranglers have busted another rogue reptile. The Wranglers, that would be Warminster public works director Buddy Mullen and animal control officer Craig Claycomb, plucked a 30-inch gator from a pond near a construction site for new homes in Northampton on Monday.

Warminster Township Public Works director Buddy Mullen shows off an alligator to his neighbors outside his Warminster home. The animal was found in a pond in New Hampton. (Bonnie Weller/Inquirer)
Warminster Township Public Works director Buddy Mullen shows off an alligator to his neighbors outside his Warminster home. The animal was found in a pond in New Hampton. (Bonnie Weller/Inquirer)Read more

Bucks County's Gator Wranglers have busted another rogue reptile.

The Wranglers, that would be Warminster public works director Buddy Mullen and animal control officer Craig Claycomb, plucked a 30-inch gator from a pond near a construction site for new homes in Northampton on Monday.

Last June, Mullen, Claycomb and another animal control officer, wrangled a five-footer and a three-footer from Pennypack Creek in Bryn Athyn. Two more alligators were captured in a creek in Berks County last summer.

And that doesn't include one spotted last week by a fisherman in Kohler Park in Horsham.

"We get a lot of other stuff. We had emus the other month. We had a parrot, lizards, snakes, tortoises," said Mullen.

The latest gator was spotted by children playing near the pond on Buck Road, he said. They told their mother, who called Northampton police.

To get their prey, Claycomb put on chest waders and walked into the waist-high muck, while Mullen - lucky dog or maybe just top dog - spotted him from the bank.

Their bait? "Craig," laughed Mullen.

When they saw the animal swimming across the pond, Claycomb nabbed it with a net. Once out of the water, the men taped the gator's mouth shut and put it in a truck.

"We still got all our fingers and toes. We're doing good," he said.

The creature is probably a youngster who was someone's pet. People buy gators then release them when they grow from adorable hatchling into scary beast.

Joe Fortunato, aka Jungle Joe, who hosts wildlife children's parties and is opening a teaching zoo, Animal Junction in Warminster, said it's a big problem.

"They think its funny or they're doing the right thing by letting the animal go, but it's hurting the ecosystem," said Fortunato, a former Philadelphia police officer.

Fortunato plans to add the critter to his collection, which includes a two-foot crocodile and two small alligators.

After making a spectacular recovery, alligators were removed from the U.S. endangered species list in 1987. Now they are legally sold in some pet stores, on the Internet and at reptile shows.

There are a patchwork of laws restricting ownership. Most states with wild alligator populations prohibit keeping them as pets. Local communities can also adopt zoning or animal ordinances that ban the creatures or require special permits.

In Florida, where giant snakes battle alligators in the Everglades, any gator over four-feet that ventures onto a homeowner's property is euthanized.

A better fate awaits Bucks County's gators. Last year's crocodiles were adopted by the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown and the Lake Tobias Wildlife Park in Halifax, Pa.

Until Jungle Joe can pick him up, this week's gator is resting comfortably in Mullen's basement bathtub.

"It's the safest spot," he said.

Everytime he captures a rogue he calls his wife, Holly, and tells her to fill the tub.

The first time "it was shocking," she admitted.

Having a five-foot gator in the house was "really scary," even though they made sure to lock the bathroom and basement doors, she said.

Now she's as much of a pro as her husband. So when he calls to tell her about his latest find, she fills the tub, but that's where she draws the line.

"She makes me clean it," he said.