Most people just keep goldfish, cats or dogs as pets. Some more exotic pet owners keep tarantulas or snakes in their homes. One home in Van Nuys in Southern California, however, has been keeping a secret pet alligator in their backyard for the past 36 years.
The alligator, an eight-foot female named Jaxson, was found by animal control authorities in the home of Laura Mattson. The reptile was hidden in a box under foliage, along with the dead bodies of two cats. Although it is suspected that the homeowners were feeding the felines to their pet, they are denying the allegations.
Mattson told authorities that her late husband, Jim, brought Jaxson home when she was just a baby. She claimed that they had been hand-feeding her hotdogs and chickens.
Mattson sees the alligator as part of the family. However, keeping an alligator is against the law, so authorities removed her from the property.
"It's like losing part of my family and plus losing part of Jim. So now I've lost him too," Mattson told reporters.
According to reports, animal control already heard rumors of an alligator in the neighborhood last year but were unable to locate it. More information led them to Mattson's home, but an initial search turned up nothing.
On Monday, they returned to the home with search warrants and found the alligator in the backyard.
Further investigation is underway to determine if Jaxson's owners were indeed feeding cats to the alligator and if missing pets in the neighborhood over the past 40 years were due to the alligator.
Mattson's brother, Ron Gorecki, supported his sister and her ownership of Jaxson, and was disgusted by the allegations against her.
"Now we lost the alligator. And now they're making statements that we shouldn't be making because nobody's feeding cats to the alligator. We got plenty of money to feed whatever we have to feed," Gorecki said.
Mattson maintains that Jaxson is a docile creature and lets rats eat hotdogs out of her mouth. She also says that she often takes in and cares for stray cats in the neighborhood.
