The TIMES of Smithtown
Serving Smithtown • St. JameS • neSconSet • commack • hauppauge • kingS park • Fort Salonga Volume 28, No. 27 September 3, 2015
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SBU & Local Business Resource Guide INSIDe
Snapping in Smithtown Photos by Victoria espinoza
above, the dangerous alligator snapping turtle is put on display after being captured in Smithtown. Below, Spca chief roy gross handles the reptile. By victoria eSpinoza
Checkpoint arrests
Suffolk County police collar 11 during overnight DWI patrol on 347
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. A 25-pound alligator snapping turtle was found this past weekend in the stream opposite the Smithtown Bull in Smithtown, with enough power to bite off someone’s finger or toe, officials said. “We’re just lucky the gentleman who found it knew how to handle it, and knew to contact us,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “This reptile is capable of taking toes and part of a foot clean off. People are constantly walking by this area barefoot, including children.” A father and son, both Suffolk County residents, found the reptile while they were preparing to go kayaking, officials said. Gross said that this freshwater reptile is not indigenous to this area and is mainly found from eastern Texas to the Florida panhandle. Gross and Dan Losquadro, highway superintendent for Brookhaven, both said that this is another example of people dumping reptiles in public places, which
then create a serious threat and risk to the public. “This is a dangerous animal. We don’t want animals abandoned. But we don’t want to endanger the public,” the highway superintendent said. According to Losquadro, the turtle will be transported to the Harold H. Malkmes Wildlife Education and Ecology Center, in Holtsville, where it will be given shelter and a veterinarian will make sure it is physically healthy and will identify what gender it is. The ecology center is a refugee for all abandoned animals. Gross said that over the years there have been many incidents of animals being released to the public, and that someone guilty of this can be faced with multiple charges and prosecuted. Gross suspected this was originally someone’s pet but stressed that this is not the kind of pet you want to have. “I can’t imagine curled up on the couch watching television with this guy,” Gross said. When transporting the turtle, he said the turtle was able to make a hole in the container he was kept in and was trying to escape.