Ailing Prospect Park alligator dies after suffering from ‘tragic case of animal abuse’
The sickly gator rescued from Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Lake in February succumbed to her injuries and illness this month as a result of what experts called a “tragic case of animal abuse.”
The nearly 5-foot alligator died on April 16, the Bronx Zoo said in a statement on Friday.
“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,” the statement read.
A necropsy attributed the animal’s death to severe weight loss, extreme anemia and intestinal and skin infections, as well as a chronic ulcer from the swallowed bath stopper.
“Her immune system was not as strong as it needed to be and she succumbed to those infections,” zoo officials explained.
The zoo had been caring for the alligator since she was discovered by workers in Prospect Park on Feb. 19.
When she first arrived, she weighed only 15 pounds.
She was initially tube fed by animal carers because she was too weak to eat on her own.
The Bronx Zoo’s statement decried the alligator’s death as a “tragic case of animal abuse” and reminded the public that “wild animals are not pets.”
“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,” it lamented.
