SPCA: Gator rescued from Miller Place home

An American alligator, 2 feet long, was rescued Wednesday from a Miller Place home, the SPCA said.

The alligator was surrendered by the owner, "who missed the amnesty day a few weeks ago," Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Chief Roy Gross said in a news release.

The alligator "appeared to be in good health" and will be taken to a licensed reptile facility, Gross said.

The gator is the 19th "turned in or abandoned" in a little more than a year "in the Long Island area," Gross said.

The Suffolk County SPCA held an amnesty day last month in Selden, for residents interested in surrendering their illegally possessed reptiles and amphibians.

The amnesty day program, the second of its kind in Suffolk, allowed owners of illegal venomous snakes and constrictors, as well as dangerous reptiles, to surrender the animals to authorities without penalty.

The collection effort yielded mostly legal pets: three red-eared slider turtles; a common boa constrictor; a Brazilian rainbow boa; and a 6-foot Dumeril's boa, officials said. The eight pets were sent to a reptile sanctuary in Massachusetts.

The Suffolk SPCA ran the event in cooperation with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With John Valenti