Video of Alligator Captured at Upstate School! How Did They Catch Him?
Last September, the Department of Environmental Conservation got a call regarding an alligator on the property at Van Wyck Junior High School in East Fishkill, New York! Imagine getting that call? Not a lost dog or a curious black bear, an alligator approximately 5-feet in length on school grounds!
Now we have additional footage of how NYS DEC officers were able to capture the gator and get him, and the kids, to safety.
According to News 10 ABC, a next door neighbor to the school happened to be looking out the window and spotted a 50-pound junior alligator crawling through the parking lot of the nearby school. She immediately called the police. Once DEC officers arrived on the scene they were able to safely subdue the animal and transport it to an area animal rehabilitation specialist for evaluation.
It isn't every day that we encounter an alligator in New York State. How were these officers trained to capture one? Whatever the method, they were taught well as nobody, including the gator, was harmed.
Today, courtesy of the New York State DEC Facebook page, we have additional footage from this mission. When you watch the video you will see the gator doesn't like it when they place a towel over it's head. You will see him thrash his tail back and forth and hear him hiss.
You may have heard the legend of alligators living in the sewers of Manhattan but what is the reality of encountering an alligator upstate? Alligators are not native to New York and most likely these reptiles were someone's pet, released into the area.
It is illegal to keep an alligator as a pet on New York. A few years ago New York Upstate confirmed the capture of 2 gators in the Tioughnioga River near Whitney Point.