After a summer of runaway gators, Pa. lawmaker wants to increase penalties for releasing exotic pets

A western Pennsylvania legislator whose district drew national attention for alligator sightings this past summer has a bill to try and curtail those problems.

“People have dogs that shouldn’t have dogs and people have gators that shouldn’t have gators,” said state Rep. Abby Major, R-Armstrong County, on Thursday.

Major released a co-sponsorship memo on Monday for her bill to tighten the penalties for “the intentional or negligent release of exotic animals, such as alligators, crocodiles, poisonous snakes and mammals which may be dangerous to the public safety or to our own native wild animals and birds.”

The bill would increase the penalties for releasing exotic animals into the wild by making it a first-degree misdemeanor, which would be punishable by up to a $25,000 fine and five years in prison.

“I’ve had a decent number of co-sponsors already,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we can actually make this happen.”

Once it is introduced, Major said her bill would be assigned to the House Game & Fisheries Committee.

Major’s bill comes after some high-profile gator issues in her district.

In late July, kayakers on the Kiski River spotted a 4-foot-long alligator on the shore and watched it slip into the water. Eventually dubbed “Chomper,” the gator eluded searchers for over a week before being caught and handed over to a Pittsburgh-area reptile rescue non-profit.

Several weeks later, a smaller alligator was seen by kayakers near Apollo, Armstrong County, but they were unable to catch it. The owner of that alligator, named Neo, said that the reptile escaped when he was moving it to a friend’s house.

By all accounts, Neo remains on the loose.

Early last month, police seized nine alligators from a Kiski Township home near the river after they escaped and began roaming the neighborhood, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

One alligator was found on a neighbor’s porch.

The gators’ owner, Dominic Hayward, was in jail at the time, said police, who told the Trib that they believed Hayward’s home was the source of the gator sightings in the river.

Police said that Neo’s owner was taking it to Hayward’s home when it escaped.