Escaped lizard allegedly gave sitter the slip
A large carnivorous lizard captured on camera crossing busy Westchester Avenue in St. Catharines earlier this month had been on the lam for a few days before capture.
Lincoln County Humane Society made contact with the owner of the illegal pet this past weekend who told officials the water monitor escaped while he was on vacation and a friend was lizardsitting.
“His friend felt it was too hot in the room and opened the window,” said executive director Kevin Strooband. “The rest is history.”
The four-foot-long lizard made a bizarre sight when it stopped traffic in both directions on Westchester Avenue on July 19. A passerby snapped a photo of the creature and sent it to Niagara Region Animal Services, an offshoot of the humane society.
As staff responded, another call came in from a resident on nearby Clayburn Avenue who had found the lizard in his backyard and trapped it under a blue bin.
It was taken to Lincoln County Humane Society on Fourth Avenue, where it escaped from a dog cage. Staff found it perched on a stack of containers hissing down at them. The lizard, who staff named Clay, was returned to the cage under surveillance and again flattened itself between the bars. It was put in a more secure cage after that.
The lizard was sent to its new home at the Reptilla Reptile Kingdom in Vaughan on Sunday.
Strooband said the St. Catharines owner of the five-year-old lizard came forward and admitted he had acquired it three years ago. The owner said he rescued it from a Toronto resident who had been bitten a number of times, got sick of it and stopped feeding it.
The St. Catharines owner told the humane society it was malnourished, had maggots and a broken tail. He nursed it back to health and it lived with him in the area of the Clayburn Avenue neighbourhood.
He told society staff he had been searching for the lizard for a few days after returning from vacation. It’s not known exactly how long the lizard was out and about.
Water monitor lizards have sharp teeth and claws and are prohibited under a City of St. Catharines bylaw. “They’re quite capable of doing some serious damage,” Strooband said.
Strooband said the humane society has not determined if charges will be laid and is doing a full investigation.