Late this evening a male crocodile arrived on the mainland from San Pedro after it was captured for terrorizing residents of the island. The crocodile, fondly name, Mr. Chet is being blamed for eating two dogs more than six weeks ago. The residents have had enough of the stubborn croc and today it was taken in captivity in Ladyville. According to Vincent Rose, the founder of the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, under the authority of the Belize Forest Department, ACES will keep the crocodile at its main facility located at Caribbean Shrimp Farm, Ladyville, for educational display only.
VINCENT ROSE
"He is a problematic croc which means he is a repeat offender and he is not going to learn. Once a crocodile has been fed by humans, you cannot reverse that process; that crocodile will always seek out humans for food and if humans don't have food, their pets are going to come first and next, it will be humans one day. So, the bottom line is that we do is work with the Belize Forest Department, we try and remove any problematic croc throughout the country. Now, not to be confused with just a croc that happens to be in your backyard area or lagoon areas or waterways; we only can respond to crocodiles that are giving trouble to humans. This particular croc, we have given him four or five chances already and his time is up now and so the only other thing to do is put the crocodile down which we don't want to do; number one - it's against the law and number two - we are into preserving the species not killing off the species therefore he just got put into our new habitat pen and he will have a girlfriend in there and her name is Bridgette. He is kind of in crocodile jail for the rest of his life but at least we can use him as a tool for education and bring school children out here and teach them all about crocodiles."
Today, a crocodile came to Belize City in A chicken boat! Sounds like a strange story, but really, it's quite straightforward. The eight foot American Crocodile, known as Mr. Chet was removed from San Pedro after it killed two dogs in the last three months; one of the dogs weighed almost 60 pounds! Removing it from the island was the last option; first it was relocated 30 miles north after it killed one dog - but the croc returned to the same area and killed another.