When a Missouri sheriff’s deputy was planning to serve an eviction notice, he likely wasn’t expecting to find various animals — including an alligator — among the tenants at the home.
On Wednesday, the deputy attended the residence and on serving the notice, found a seven-foot, 200-pound alligator, three pythons, a rabbit and several “domesticated” animals, including cats at the Kansas City home, NBC-affiliate KSHB reports.
Sean Casey is the animals’ owner and says he considers them his pets, including Katfish the alligator.
“Sometimes, he gets kind of smelly, but he’s a big cuddly gator. He wags his tail when I come home,” he told KSHB. “I’ve had him since he was a baby and he was my pet. He’s my little buddy.”
He said he believes it was Katfish’s diet of chicken nuggets, steak, deer, fish and rats which got him to the current weight. According to Casey, he’s had Katfish for four years.
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The gator wasn’t wagging his tail though, when he was taken out of the home from inside a tub.
Using a snare, animal control officers and Dana Savorelli with Monkey Island Rescue, were able to take him from the tub. It took four officers to remove the reptile using a blanket, take him outside and load him into a truck.
“With the water, he was in about 18-inches deep, but he could get up and get out and cruise through the house. He had a ramp,” Savorelli said.
He added the blanket helped, but “two of us couldn’t pick him up.”
James Donovan, with KCMO Animal Control, said it was his second or third alligator call he’d received, but the first of this size and magnitude.
For Casey, however, the eviction also means heartbreak.
According to officials, the gator will have to stay at Monkey Island Rescue and he will not be able to get his friend back.
“He can reclaim the snakes and the rabbit but the alligator’s a prohibited animal here in Kansas City, Missouri,” Donovan said.
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When he first got Katfish, the animal and reptile owner said he kept him in an aquarium.
But he clearly outgrew the space.
“I’ve had him since he was itty-bitty,” Casey said. “He’s not a ferocious animal like people make him out to be. Anybody who’s met him would know.”
For possessing an exotic animal within city limits, Casey will get a ticket.