In Sunset Park, unfazed fisherman reels in, ties up alligator

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A fisherman angling for catfish in Sunset Park reeled in an alligator Monday morning.

Authorities were alerted about 8:30 a.m., and by the time they arrived at the park’s man-made lake, the fisherman had secured the 3 1/2-foot reptile with fishing line.

“The guy’s got some moxie, whoever he is,” Doug Nielsen, a Nevada Wildlife Department spokesman, said of the fisherman.

Clark County Animal Control Supervisor Dave March said the alligator was likely released recently into the lake, where children frequently feed ducks from park benches and urban anglers dangle a line in the catfish- and trout-stocked waters. It’s unlikely such an animal could have gone unnoticed for long, he said.

Importing and owning alligators is illegal in Nevada. Those two actions can result in fines of up to $1,000 each and six months in jail. (The Nevada Administrative Code’s list of prohibited animals is a long one. In addition to alligators, it includes freshwater sharks and stingrays.)

Releasing a prohibited animal is a misdemeanor and carries the same penalties, Nielsen said.

After the Wildlife Department took possession of the alligator, which Nielsen described as a healthy juvenile, it was put down.

Authorities have no idea who dumped the reptile in Sunset Park Lake, he said. But its appearance fits a pattern here.

“What happens is, guys will go on vacation to Florida or somewhere like that and they see a small alligator and think, ‘What a cool pet,’ then bring it to Nevada,” he said. “But they get big and can get aggressive and a little dangerous and can end up in local waters.”

In the right situation alligators can survive here, March said.

“This is the second alligator I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been here,” March said. “The other was about 12 feet long and in someone’s back yard.”

In 2005 members of the Phoenix Herpetological Society captured an 8-foot, 3-inch alligator living in spring-fed ponds in northwestern Arizona, 100 miles northeast of Las Vegas. A Mesquite rancher had received the reptile as a gift.

Nielsen said owners of a prohibited animal who are no longer able to care for it should call authorities. There’s no guarantee the pet owner will get away without a fine, but coming forward could lessen the penalties, he said.

“The big thing for people to realize is that when they find something that appears to be really exotic and might be a cool pet, think twice about it,” Nielsen added. “Especially something that comes with teeth.”