Man Fined After Police Officers Discover a Pet Alligator Called Cliff Living in His Backyard
A man in England has been fined for keeping a pet alligator called Cliff in his backyard.
According to BBC News, Ashley Betts, from Rotherham, kept the 4-foot reptile in a tank at the back of his home for a year before police discovered it in July 2024.
Betts, 32, claimed he did not know a special license was needed to keep exotic creatures like Cliff. He pleaded guilty to breaching the Dangerous Wild Animals Act at Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, March 12, per the outlet.
He was ordered to pay nearly $1,300 in fines.
The U.K.'s Dangerous Wild Animals Act, which includes alligators, states that "no person shall keep any dangerous wild animal except under the authority of a license granted in accordance with the provisions of this Act by a local authority."
According to BBC News, Cliff is now living in a temporary home in a park in Liverpool. The court heard that Betts hopes to get Cliff back by gaining the appropriate license required to keep the gator.
Related: 8-Foot Alligator Caught on Camera Roaming Florida Neighborhood and Causing Chaos on Pizza Route
Betts reportedly kept Cliff in a special outbuilding and tank, which police discovered after visiting Betts' house for a different reason.
Local media outlet Sheffield Star reported that the 32-year-old said he got the alligator from a friend.
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Betts was not charged with animal cruelty, and the court said there was "no suggestion" the animal was being kept in poor conditions or in a way that was unsafe for the public, per BBC News.
PEOPLE reached out to South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield Magistrates' Court for comment.
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This comes after authorities confiscated a deer that a Pennsylvania woman had been keeping as a pet earlier this year, as previously reported by PEOPLE.
According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission and CBS News affiliate KDKA News, Tammy Shiery said that she and several members of her neighborhood had raised the 2-year-old deer — whom they named Baby — ever since they found him as a fawn.
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Shiery, 64, of Fayette County, said that she believed she had all of the necessary paperwork to legally keep Baby as a pet and that the animal has received all of the same vaccines that are required for deer on deer farms.
However, Pennsylvania law states that deer can only be kept as domestic pets if they were born in captivity, which was not the case for Baby.
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