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Alligator Outgrows Home After 27 Years

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A pet alligator has been shipped to a Spanish sanctuary after its British owner decided it had grown too big, an animal protection charity said on Monday.


Samson the alligator was brought to Britain from the United States as a 10-inch-long hatchling 27 years ago -- before British laws were changed to make it more difficult to import reptiles.

But the owner, a man from near the northern English city of Manchester, became concerned about a possible 50 more years of cohabitation after the reptile hit six feet.

"They can live up to 80 years in the wild; you've got to remember they're descended from the dinosaurs," said an RSPCA spokesman.

Samson will now live with around 200 other crocodiles and alligators in a sanctuary near Seville in Spain, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said.

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