After alligators in Kiski River, state rep. wants to increase punishment for exotic animal release

KISKI TOWNSHIP, Pa. — When Tony Gularski got home from the hospital at the beginning of October, his neighbors told him not to go on his front porch because there was an alligator.

So, he looked out the front door.

“It was laying right there,” Gularski told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek as they spoke on Gularski’s porch Thursday. “It was just looking at me.”

It came from a home just down the road from his house. That’s where humane officers removed nine other gators from the home, and the owner of those gators was cited by the Fish and Boat Commission for allowing that gator, and another gator still in the Kiski River, to get loose.

Gularski is glad that happened.

“For the safety of the people, that’s a dangerous animal,” he said.

The state representative for the Kiski area, Republican Abby Major, is introducing legislation this week that would, as she says, add teeth to the current penalties for purposefully or accidentally letting an exotic animal out into the state.

“This was recommended as a step in the direction to try and prevent this from happening in the future,” Major said.

Her legislation would make releasing an exotic animal into the wild a first-degree misdemeanor. That would mean a fine between $1,500 to $10,000, or up to five years in jail.

“It’s wild. It’s crazy that this is an issue that we’re having in western Pennsylvania,” Major said. “Armstrong County isn’t known for its alligators I guess until this year, but I’m just hoping this will deter people from doing it in the future.”

Gularski hopes for the same.

“It could get loose and bite or kill someone,” he added.

Major stressed that any legislation she proposes about strengthening these penalties would not actually make gators illegal to own in the Commonwealth.

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