The nearly 5-foot alligator captured in Brooklyn's Prospect Park earlier this year has died, the Bronx Zoo, which had been caring for the reptile since mid-February, announced Friday.
Zoo officials, in their first update since receiving the female alligator on Feb. 19, called her demise a "tragic case of animal abuse."
A necropsy revealed the reptile suffered from chronic and severe weight loss, extreme anemia and various infections. She also developed a chronic ulcer from the 4-inch bathtub stopper discovered in her stomach in late February. The stopper was successfully removed (the zoo says she ate while being kept as an illegal pet) and she had intensive care.
Ultimately, the alligator was in poor health when she was pulled from the 37-degree lake. She was emaciated, lethargic and her immune system wasn't strong enough to beat the infections, the Bronx Zoo said. She died Sunday.
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Despite extensive ongoing medical treatment, nutritional support and the successful removal of a bathtub stopper she had ingested while illegally kept as a pet, the alligator died on Sunday, 16 April.
"Alligators and other wild animals do not belong in the pet trade or in people’s homes," the Bronx Zoo said in a statement. "This alligator suffered and died because its owner decided to dump her in a frigid lake, in an extremely debilitated state, rather than provide her with the veterinary care that could have saved her. Wild animals are not pets."
Alligators are obviously not native to the New York area, and experts warn that exotic animals can harm local species and the environment. It's illegal to release animals into NYC parks -- and it's illegal to own an alligator in the state.
