Bronx, April 21, 2023 – The following statement was issued today from the Bronx Zoo:

“The alligator found on Sunday, 19 February 2023 in 37-degree Fahrenheit temperature at Prospect Park Lake and taken to the Bronx Zoo has died. 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. A necropsy revealed chronic and severe weight loss, extreme anemia, and infections in her intestine and skin. She also had a chronic ulcer of her stomach caused by the rubber stopper. Despite the intensive care, the alligator was so emaciated, debilitated, and anemic, her immune system was not as strong as it needed to be and she succumbed to those infections.

“This was a tragic case of animal abuse. Alligators and other wild animals do not belong in the pet trade or in people’s homes. 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.”

(See Bronx Zoo statement issued on Feb. 22 HERE.)

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