AUBURN – A police officer investigating a report of an assault Wednesday morning discovered a menagerie of illegal pets, including a 2-foot alligator, inside a Turner Street apartment.
By Wednesday afternoon, police and game wardens had hauled out the alligator, a python and several snapping turtles they say are prohibited in Maine.
Left behind in the top-floor apartment at 248 Turner St. were several exotic birds and other pets, police said.
Later Wednesday night, police arrested 37-year-old Timothy J. Aube, who lives in the apartment, on charges of domestic assault and domestic terrorizing. He was also facing a summons from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on a charge of keeping exotic pets.
Auburn police Officer Dan Davies was following up on a reported assault at the apartment Wednesday morning when he spotted the animals, according to police Lt. Rick Coron. Davies called the Warden Service, and Warden Rick Stone went to the apartment near the intersection at Court Street.
Although the reptile was only 2 feet long, it had sharp teeth and claws, Stone said. When police and an animal control officer first approached the reptile, it snapped and hissed at them.
Stone first made sure that creature was contained and prepared for transport. The animal’s jaws were bound with electrical tape. Duct tape was wrapped around its body to minimize the alligator’s ability to twist and writhe.
The alligator was placed in a bucket, along with an alligator snapping turtle said to be illegal in this state. Next came a tank housing a Burmese python. Later, Davies and Stone carried down a tank with two more snapping turtles splashing around in four inches of water.
The animals did not appear to have been mistreated. Stone said he would turn over the creatures to animal rescue officials and that they could end up at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray or another zoo.
It was believed Aube had purchased the animals in another state.
While exotic pets are relatively rare in this area, discovering them at private homes is not unheard of.
Earlier this month, police, wardens and an animal control officer went to a Lewiston home after it was learned an elderly woman had been keeping a monkey in a cage for nearly three decades. The Capuchin monkey was removed from the home and turned over to the York Zoo.
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