Man allowed to keep 5-foot-long pet alligator despite complaint from neighbor

Randy Thomas from Smith Township near Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, has looked after Jackie the pet alligator for 10 years. “(We) went to exotic pet show in Pittsburgh. We thought it was small black caiman,” said Thomas. “She likes being rubbed underneath her head,” he adds.

Thomas brings Jackie out of her cage a couple times a week and said the majority of the neighbors embrace the animal. “All the neighborhood kids come and feed the alligator,” said Thomas. One neighbor made an anonymous call to the Washington Area Humane Society and complained.

Thomas said police, humane officers and the game commission have been to the house and approved. “I told them, ‘I’m not breaking any laws or ordinances, but I’ll show you she is well taken care of,’” said Thomas. Thomas said Jackie could never escape her secure cage and aside from some tail whipping, it is no threat.

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“If I was going to get bit, she would have bit me a long time ago,” he said. Thomas said he knows alligator owners who keep their pets’ mouths taped shut, but he said there is no need to do that with Jackie. Thomas said Jackie lives in his basement in the winter and if given a bigger baby pool than she has, she would grow much larger.