Big Mack The Gator Removed From Philly Home, Heads To FL Sanctuary

JUPITER, FL — An 8-foot-long pet alligator caught in the middle of its owners’ divorce has been removed from a Philadelphia home and is heading to a South Florida wildlife rescue.

Big Mack the gator, who weighs 127 pounds, had been confined to a padlocked, makeshift pen in the home's basement since 2012, Fox 29 reported. (Watch a video of him taking his first swim in years below.)

He was a baby when the now-divorced couple — then married — purchased him, reports said.
When the couple split, the ex-wife no longer wanted to care for the reptile and surrendered it to ACCT Philly, the city's only animal care and control organization.

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"I wanted him out of here," she told CBS Philadelphia.

ACCT Philly's staff was surprised by Big Mack's size when they got to the home as they were led to believe he was smaller, about 5 feet long, Sarah Barnett, the organization's executive director, told Patch.

Initially, they planned to send him to a Michigan sanctuary, but he was too big for the plane they secured to take him there. They then tried to find a wildlife rescue in Pennsylvania before connecting with Jupiter Alligator & Wildlife Sanctuary — known as JAWS, naturally — in Jupiter, Florida.

The nonprofit's mission is to serve as "a sanctuary for misplaced, captive crocodilians, giving them refuge sculpted specifically to their needs," according to the group's website.

Watch Big Mack take his first swim in years: