7-foot pet alligator removed in Missouri man's home

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A Kansas City, Missouri man was forced to give up his 7-foot pet alligator found by law enforcement officers during an eviction.

Animal control officers were called to the home Wednesday, but they had to call a sanctuary to come help remove the enormous reptile.

The owner, Sean Casey said he got the alligator – named Catfish – about four years ago, when it was only about a foot long.

Now, Catfish weighs in at a whopping 200 pounds, but Casey said he’s more like a dog than a vicious predator.

“He had his own way of saying, ‘Hi,’ to people,” Casey told FOX 4 News’s Shannon O’Brien. “They’re not big ferocious animals like people think. They have personalities.”

Casey added he will fight to get his pet alligator back.

He said the house where they lived belonged to his grandmother who is in a nursing home. He said a trustee of his grandmother’s affairs is evicting him.

Animal control officers said they also found three pythons and a rabbit in the home.