Alligator With Mouth Taped Shut Rescued By Deputies

FOREST HILL, MD — Police officers often respond to calls for help with animals stuck in predicaments, such as cats in trees, dogs in wells and fawns in fences. But Harford County sheriff's deputies received a call Thursday night that was a new one for them.

Sheriff's deputies from the Northern Precinct were called to a reptile shop in Forest Hill late Thursday night after receiving reports from witnesses about an alligator in the parking lot. When deputies arrived at the parking lot, they spied the alligator and were able to safely secure it, the sheriff's office posted on Facebook.

The alligator appeared to be deliberately abandoned and with its mouth taped shut, deputies observed.

Deputies contacted a local reptile rescue to help them out. The alligator appeared to be in good healthy, was friendly and docile, which led rescuers to believe that it had likely been someone's pet who'd been abandoned with cold temperatures in the forecast that would've been deadly.

The alligator will be rehomed at a local zoo or rescue.

"With last night’s temperature dropping to near freezing, without the timely intervention from our deputies and the shop owner, its unlikely that the alligator would have survived," the sheriff's office posted.

Maryland law prohibits personally owning alligators and Harford County Code prohibits abandoning any animal. The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Northern Precinct at 410-692-7880.