JSO said they confiscated multiple dogs, an alligator, young raccoons and turtles that had been abused from a property they were investigating for drugs.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Multiple dogs, young raccoons and turtles, as well as an illegally-kept 9-foot gator that had been abused were found at a property on the Westside, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said. The property was being investigated for drug trafficking, but the search led to several charges for abusing animals and promoting dog fighting for 49-year-old Marquis Williams.
Police found cocaine, oxycodone, marijuana and guns on the property, JSO said. Williams was charged with multiple felonies related to these findings.
Officers discovered dog fighting equipment, trophies and books, and then discovered “multiple” dogs being kept without access to water and showing “serious signs of neglect,” JSO said. These signs included being covered in feces, fleas and infections, with either open or healing wounds; JSO says that the raccoons and turtles discovered appeared similarly neglected.
But what they called the most shocking discovery was a 9-foot alligator being kept in a small, fenced area. It had no access to water. “Bones scattered on the ground suggested he was being fed the other animals on the property,” JSO wrote in a social media post.
A nuisance alligator wrangler from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission came to remove the alligator.
Williams faces more than a dozen charges related to the treatment of the animals and dog fighting, including a charge of “illegal killing, possessing, or capturing of alligators or crocodilian or eggs.”
He is set to be arraigned July 1.
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