NEW YORK (CNN) - Animal care authorities
have removed 13 exotic pets from a housing project in Brooklyn, where
the animals -- including two small alligators -- were mostly kept in
fish tanks, the NYPD said Saturday.
The officers had been
conducting an unrelated search Friday afternoon when they came across
the owner's hoard of two bearded dragons, two alligators, one gecko, one
scorpion and a tarantula.
Six deadly snakes, including a boa constrictor and five pythons, also were uncovered.
The
pet owner was not arrested, but the animals were removed from the
apartment because exotic animals are not allowed inside a public housing
project, police said.
The city's housing authority permits
"either one dog or one cat," as well as "reasonable quantities" of small
pets such as caged birds, fish, hamsters, gerbils or guinea pigs.
"Animals
that are vicious, threatening, bite people or that are otherwise
prohibited by law are not permitted in NYCHA apartments or on NYCHA
property," according to the agency's website.
Officials from the city's animal control agency were called in to remove the unlikely pets, police said.
The
find drew comparisons to a 2003 incident in New York at which
authorities uncovered a nearly 400-pound Bengal tiger and a 3-foot,
280-pound alligator in a Harlem apartment.
Police said the
apartment was so cluttered they felt they had no choice but to rappel
from above and shoot a tranquilizer dart from outside. An officer
lowered himself from a seventh-floor apartment, armed with a
tranquilizer gun and an M-4 rifle, and eventually secured the animals.
Both the tiger and the alligator were taken to an animal shelter.
