It’s a croc

Comments like “the world has gone mad” are as common today as “hello.” Sadly, I am afraid this column shares that sentiment, although not in reference to the usual topics. (This is the animal column, after all.) A reader recently brought to my attention an online ad they found both shocking and depressing: “For Sale, Breeding Pair of adult Nile Crocodiles. Male around 10'+, female 8-9'. Perfect health and missing NO body parts. Asking $16,000 or best offer.” Last I checked, the ad was updated with “Sale Pending.”

The commercial trafficking in wildlife is wrong. To start with the obvious, the sale of animals who can hurt us is wrong and, to be clear, a 10-foot long Nile Crocodile is just as happy to eat you as what he would normally encounter in the more than two-dozen African nations which he calls home. The normal diet includes zebra, small hippos, fish, as well as people: Nile Crocs are deservedly known as “man eaters,” with 200 people killed and consumed each year. The largest on record was 20 feet long and weighed three-quarters of a ton although the average of 500 pounds, 16 feet is nothing to laugh about. But the sale of wildlife is not just wrong when it is potentially dangerous. It is wrong. Period.