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It was a celebration of the end of the school year at Lakeview Middle School in the Kansas City Northlands that brought Alex, a 14-inch alligator, to the school on May 23, courtesy of Thorni Ridge Exotics, a mobile petting zoo based in Smithton, Missouri.
But, by mid-afternoon, Alex had escaped. The gator was missing for 10 days before it was recovered from the grounds of the middle school, despite extensive searches. And this isn’t the petting zoo’s first time coming under fire for mishandling — and even losing — animals.
The alligator — dubbed Alex according to a Facebook post from the Park Hill School District — is now in the custody of KC Pet Project, which coordinated search and rescue efforts and still has a hold on him pending an investigation.
“He’s eating, he’s mobile, and just making sure we’re obviously limiting a lot of traffic to where he is housed and making sure that everybody’s safe,” said KC Pet Project chief communications officer Tori Fugate. “But he’s doing great.”
Alex is being housed in his own room, Fugate said, where he has access to water, food and heat.
The gator was found near the school’s back doors on the first day of summer school at Lakeview Middle.
The school said in a Facebook post that it had security footage of the alligator walking across the parking lot around 2:30 the same morning it was found by a custodian outside theschool.
School staff members still have questions about how Thorni Ridge handled the escape.
At the end-of-the-year celebration which brought Alex to Lakeview, only one staff member from Thorni Ridge was present, said Kelly Wachel, chief communications officer for the Park Ridge school district. The staff member left the school before staff and animal control stopped searching for the night, according to Wachel.
“I think there was some nonchalance in his attitude, or his approach to the missing alligator,” Wachel said.
Lakeview had hired the petting zoo in the past. However, Wachel believes it was the employee’s first time helping with Thorni Ridge events at the middle school.
Smithton native Eric Smith, who co-owns and manages the petting zoo, believes the alligator was stolen from the school. Smith found the circumstances of its return suspicious, he said.
When the gator went missing, Thorni Ridge filed a police report, Smith said.
“We’re thrilled that it’s back,” Smith said. “It showed up on the first day of summer school at the back door of the school. Whoever had it brought it back, because the alligator wouldn’t have come back and been at the door.”
Fugate previously told the Star that KC Pet Project planned to pursue citations against all parties involved in the alligator’s flight, including Thorni Ridge.
“We’re still very much investigating that and working with all the respective parties involved,” Fugate said.
Smith says KC Pet Project has not contacted Thorni Ridge since the incident. He declined to comment further on potential citations.
Was the alligator legal?
Keeping wild animals is banned in Missouri, including “any dangerous, deadly or poisonous reptile,” which is a Class C misdemeanor under state law if the animals are not registered.
Alligators are not allowed in Kansas City, Missouri city limits, the Star previously reported.
It’s also against city ordinance to “permit a snake or lizard to escape from a cage or while being handled.”
Smith said Friday that Thorni Ridge was allowed to have the alligator, which they raised from infancy. All of Thorni Ridge’s animals are imported as babies and domesticated as they are raised, Smith said.
“We have lots of animals that we’re allowed to have,” Smith said. “We’re not someone that just owns an alligator. We raise them.”
KC Pet Project had no update as of Friday regarding its investigation into the incident.
A lost kangaroo
Thorni Ridge Exotics opened in 2017, according to property records. It is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
The petting zoo has a four star rating on Google Reviews and a 1.3 star rating on Yelp. It has previously partnered with the St. Louis Petting Zoo to bring animals to events in eastern Missouri.
The Austin Daily Herald previously reported that Thorni Ridge brings animals to upwards of 300 engagements a year. The petting zoo charges upwards of $250 per event, according to third-party booking websites. Churches, schools and retirement homes are common destinations for Thorni Ridge. The zoo advertises that it serves “Missouri and surrounding states,” according to its website.
But the alligator’s disappearance isn’t the first time it’s been alleged that an animal in Thorni Ridge’s care has gone missing. The zoo faced backlash last year for its alleged treatment of a baby kangaroo.
In June 2023, a baby kangaroo was found injured near Kansas 32 highway near Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.
Bonner Springs Police Capt. Mike Krauze told The Star at the time that it was believed the animal escaped from Thorni Ridge Exotics mobile petting zoo.
“Unbeknownst to the vehicle’s driver, during transport back to their facility, the kangaroo escaped the vehicle through an open window,” Edwardsville Police Chief Mark Mathies said in an email when the incident occurred.
Edwardsville police received a tip via Facebook Messenger that Thorni Ridge had participated in an event at the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library earlier that day, The Star reported. A kangaroo was among the animals there.
Smith denies that the kangaroo came from Thorni Ridge. He said Thorni Ridge was not named on police reports regarding the kangaroo at the time. According to Smith, the kangaroo could not have belonged to Thorni Ridge because it did not behave like a domesticated animal.
“That was not a docile kangaroo,” Smith told the Star Friday. “Just like anything on social media, people run with things that aren’t true.”
However, the Thorni Ridge Exotics website advertised a kangaroo at the time, according to website archives. In fact, Thorni Ridge keeps several animals native to Australia, including a wallaby, an eland and an emu.
Online reviews of the petting zoo ranging from November 2022 to November 2023 have also detailed animal mistreatment, most pertaining to a kangaroo.
“The animals had no water, no handler, and were left in the sun for hours,” one reviewer wrote in a Yelp review. “Very disappointed to see them being treated this way.”
Other reviews detailed a kangaroo wrapped in a urine-soaked blanket, a kangaroo put on display in freezing temps and low staffing at petting zoo events. Some reviewers have also taken issue with the way Thorni Ridge transports animals to and from events.
Despite more negative reviews of the zoo appearing online after Alex’s ten-day absence, Thorni Ridge’s operations have not been significantly impacted by the gator incident, Smith said Friday. However, the zoo will no longer allow visitors to get as close to enclosures during school visits.
“We’re still doing our thing,” Smith said. ““The sad thing is, we’re going to have to block people off a little bit further now,” Smith said. “For schools, there’s a lot of kids that don’t often have an opportunity to see anything like this.”
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