Emaciated Alligator Rescued from Cold Lake in Brooklyn's Prospect Park Dies, Zoo Officials Say
Godzilla, the 4-foot-long alligator pulled from Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake in February, died on April 16, despite extensive treatment at the Bronx Zoo
Godzilla the alligator has died.
The world was first introduced to the reptile in February when the 4-foot-long alligator was pulled from Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
A New York City Parks Department maintenance worker first spotted the alligator — later named Godzilla — in Prospect Park Lake. After learning about the sighting, members of the Parks Enforcement Patrol and the Urban Park Rangers pulled the alligator out of the water, according to a Parks Department spokesman.
Godzilla was found "in poor condition" and "very lethargic," according to a Department of Parks & Recreation statement.
The animal was eventually brought to the Bronx Zoo for care. An X-ray taken during a medical evaluation at the zoo showed the animal, estimated to be between 5 and 6 years old, had ingested a four-inch wide bathtub stopper before her rescue.
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Godzilla, a female alligator, was "in too weakened a condition" to have the stopper removed when she first arrived at the New York zoo, but the stopper was successfully extracted later. Unfortunately, Godzilla's overall health never fully rebounded from the neglect she experienced before she was pulled from Prospect Park Lake. On April 21, the Bronx Zoo announced the alligator had died a few days before.
"The alligator found on Sunday, February 19, 2023, in 37-degree Fahrenheit temperature at Prospect Park Lake and taken to the Bronx Zoo has died. Despite extensive ongoing medical treatment, nutritional support, and the successful removal of a bathtub stopper she had ingested while illegally kept as a pet, the alligator died on Sunday, April 16," the Bronx Zoo shared in a statement.
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"A necropsy revealed chronic and severe weight loss, extreme anemia, and infections in her intestine and skin. She also had a chronic ulcer of her stomach caused by the rubber stopper. Despite the intensive care, the alligator was so emaciated, debilitated, and anemic, her immune system was not as strong as it needed to be, and she succumbed to those infections," the zoo added.
The Bronx Zoo believes that before Godzilla ended up in Prospect Park Lake, she was kept illegally as a pet in New York City and underwent abuse and neglect, leading to her poor physical condition.
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"This was a tragic case of animal abuse. Alligators and other wild animals do not belong in the pet trade or in people's homes. This alligator suffered and died because its owner decided to dump her in a frigid lake in an extremely debilitated state rather than provide her with the veterinary care that could have saved her. Wild animals are not pets," the Bronx Zoo concluded its statement.
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