Henney said the trapper told him initially that Wally had been released into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge about 60 miles southeast of Brunswick, near the Florida line. Later, Henney said, the trapper told him he released Wally into a swamp on private property. Now, Henney said, “He won’t tell us where he released Wally.”
This seems like the real fuckin conspiracy. So a guy kept an alligator, who cares? Why attack him? This trapper and the cops saying, “he did his job and released Wally at an undisclosed location” are what sound fishy af to me. I wouldn’t hesitate to bet that there is a whole industry of gator leather that the cops look the other way on. Sounds way more plausible than anything any idiot “sleuths” have conjured up about the owner.
I mean yeah but there is also a concept of an animal getting used to captivity and not being able to survive in the wild anymore. So releasing them like that is just a death sentence.
There is definitely an argument for whether some random guy can take care of an alligator, but if the alligator was raised in captivity, it cannot be safely released into the wild without being trained (and even then I'm not sure).
