KEY WEST, Fla. ā An inmate at a Florida Keys jail fed iguanas, including one considered a pet, to an alligator at a small zoo run by the jail, deputies said.
Jason Gibson, an inmate at the Stock Island jail, is facing a charge of animal cruelty.Ā He was already being held on a vehicle theft charge.
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Another inmate told deputies he was feeding a sloth Sunday when he heard a thump and saw Gibson tossing an iguana named Mojo into the alligator pen. The 6-foot-long alligator chomped down on Mojo and dragged him off.Ā
According to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report, Gibson confessed that he "fed the alligator a wild iguana," claiming the iguanas were nuisances that terrorize other animals in the enclosures. Gibson told deputies he didn't know the iguana was a pet.
Gibson also claimed to have fed another iguana to the alligator "once before."
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office Children's Animal Farm houses about 150 confiscated or abandoned animals.