An abandoned and emaciated alligator that was found in a New York City lake and sent to the Bronx Zoo for recovery has died in a “tragic case of animal abuse”, zoo officials said.
The zoo provided extensive medical treatment and nutritional support for the debilitated alligator, but she succumbed to her injuries, the zoo said in a statement.
“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,” Bronx Zoo officials said. “Wild animals are not pets.”
An autopsy showed chronic and severe weight loss, extreme anaemia and infections in the alligator’s intestine and skin, the statement said. The alligator, estimated to be five to six years old, also had a chronic ulcer in her stomach caused by a rubber bathtub stopper she had ingested while illegally kept as a pet.
