(Photo by m01229)

(Photo by m01229)

Update:

While the D.C. Humane Rescue Alliance was executing a search warrant Wednesday for a large reptile at a Southeast D.C. residence, agents saw evidence of a dog fighting operation, according to the group’s Facebook page.

On Thursday morning, HRA went back to the property with a second search warrant, where they found six adult dogs and six puppies being kept in unsanitary conditions. The agency says the dogs had scars and injuries consistent with dog fighting. The dogs were all transported away to get veterinary care at an unknown location.

And later on Friday afternoon, new updates on what the caiman and the dogs may have been doing housed together in the first place: a neighbor told WJLA that people paid to watch the caiman get into gory fights with the dogs.

Original:

It would appear that D.C. is embracing its reputation as the cradle of America’s swamp creatures.

At about 4 p.m. Wednesday, officers with the Metropolitan Police Department arrived at a home on Brothers Place SE and emerged four-foot-long caiman in hand. D.C. Humane Rescue Alliance had received a tip about the little gal (or guy) living there, and issued a search warrant for the property, according to MPD. D.C. police assisted with the warrant, and found a 4 to 5-year-old caiman making its home in the basement.

MPD tweeted (and told DCist) that the animal was an alligator, but D.C. HRA has since clarified that the department confused its swamp monsters. The animal is not an alligator, but a caiman, which Google tells me is more or less the same as an alligator but with a narrower body.

D.C. HRA has also that the caiman was, in fact, five feet long—not four.

(MPD has clarified that the creature on the left hand side of their Tweet is merely a model alligator, used to roughly demonstrate the size and shape of the caiman in question. D.C.’s resident swamp animal is the one in the blue tub).

It’s as of yet unclear whether this caiman was being kept as a pet, or how MPD knew about its existence. Still, the agency would like to remind residents about animal laws in the District, which prohibit the possession of caiman, alligators and other wild creatures (with the strange exception of racing pigeons).

D.C. Animal Control will release the animal into the wild (presumably, not in the District of Columbia).

This post has been updated to reflect that the reptile is a caiman, not an alligator as MPD initially reported.

Filed Under: alligator, caiman, mpd, swamp,