Friday, Dec. 12, 2008

Alligator on the mend in Riverbank

Calvin isn't destined to be shoes, a belt or a purse.

An alligator found by Merced Multi-Agency Narcotics Task Force agents during a drug bust this week is safe and sound at a Riverbank reptile rescue facility.

Tom Campbell, owner of Central Valley Reptile Rescue, said he met with Department and Fish and Game officers in Livingston on Monday and picked up the alligator. He's named the creature "Calvin" after baseball great Cal Ripkin Jr.

"He's doing great," Campbell explained Thursday. "He was a little dried up and looked like he hadn't been in water for weeks, but he's happy."

Agents with the task force said Monday that the alligator would be going to a location in Salida — but he ended up going to Campbell's 2,700-square-foot home, which houses more than 100 reptiles. "I've been addicted to reptiles since I was a kid," said Campbell, who grew up in rural Maryland catching box turtles and copperhead snakes.

For now, Calvin is being kept in a 25-gallon tank, until Campbell determines that the alligator is free of parasites and diseases. The creature, which measures about 2 feet long, is a common American alligator, known in the scientific community as Alligator mississippiensis.

"It's what you find in the Southeast," Campbell said.

Campbell also has another alligator at his facility, a 3½-foot American alligator named "Terri," which was rescued from a home in Oregon. He also has a monocled cobra, Nile monitor, iguanas and Burmese pythons.

Agents with the task force found the alligator in a drawer while serving a search warrant at a residence in the 1300 block of Yale Avenue in Merced on Monday, according to task force Cmdr. Neil Compston.

The reptile leapt from the drawer and ran across the bedroom floor.

Compston said agents also found guns and marijuana in the home.

The man who had the reptile, 28-year-old Russell Dean Maricel, was booked at the Merced County Jail on suspicion of possession for sale of marijuana, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and possession of an exotic animal without a permit, according to agents.

Campbell said he is conducting a live reptile exhibit from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Pet's Choice, 3507 Tully Road, Suite No. 85, Modesto.