LITTLE ROCK — IT’S A lonely pursuit for Bob Barrett. There aren’t many Floridians who will bring a live alligator to your house and put the animal in your backyard pool to swim with your children.
“I don’t think there’s anybody else in the world that’s doing it,” Barrett said.
Maybe that’s because the conventional wisdom is that bad things happen to people who swim with alligators.
A swim-with-an-alligator backyard pool party for kids might seem like a close cousin to a running-with-scissors party for kids.
“My alligators aren’t wild animals,” said Barrett, 61, who runs The Alligator Attraction in Pinellas County. “They’re farm-raised gators who have had interaction with people all their lives.”
Barrett said the live-alligator birthday party makes sense.
“If you’re an 11-year-old boy, and you’ve already had a bounce house for your birthday, and you’ve already gone to Chuck E. Cheese, what else are you going to do?” he said. “If you say, ‘I’m going to have a pool party with a gator,’ people are going to show up.”
Barrett, who has about 50 gators at his Madeira Beach attraction, says that 4-footers weighing about 18-19 pounds work the best for pool parties.
Barrett, who has a state license to display alligators, shows up with the alligator in a bag with its mouth taped shut. After some fun facts and poolside photos, the gator is put in the pool to swim with the children.
“It’s usually a child’s first experience with an alligator, so we want it to be a good experience,” he said.
“Does the gator like it?” I asked Barrett.
“I don’t know. I haven’t asked,” he said. “But when we handle them, they seem to respond.”
“Does the chlorine in the pool bother the gator?” I asked.
“You hear about those stories of people finding gators in their swimming pools,” he said. “The gator’s not in there that long.”
Barrett said there’s a surefire way to know when the gator has had its fill of the kids and the pool.
“When he goes to the bottom, we say, ‘Okay, kids, gator’s done.’ ”
Barrett charges $175 to bring the live gator to your house, and there are travel charges to consider for longer trips.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is the licensing authority for Barrett and his alligators. As you might imagine, animal lovers have been asking the agency about sanctioning Barrett’s kiddie-party business.
“He has all the permits, and it’s legal,” said commission spokesman Gary Morse.
But Morse stopped short of making a ringing endorsement to this form of children’s entertainment.
“The FWC does not promote this sort of thing,” Morse said. “We recommend that anybody who interacts with wildlife use their best judgment.”
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Frank Cerabino writes for the Palm Beach Post.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 09/29/2012