Maybe Barefoot would agree to monitor who shows up here anyway...

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAK1Y6IKWC.html

Man Found Dead in Delaware Apartment With Several Pet Lizards Feasting on Body

By Randall Chase Associated Press Writer

Published: Jan 17, 2002

DOVER, Del. (AP) - Several flesh-eating pet lizards were found feasting on the corpse of their owner in his apartment, police said. Police were called to Ronald Huff's apartment in Newark, Del., on Wednesday after a relative became worried because Huff failed to show up for work, investigators said.

Officers found Huff's body on the floor, with his pet Nile monitor lizards feeding on his flesh. The state medical examiner is investigating the cause of death.

Huff, 42, had last been seen Sunday, New Castle County police said.

Workers with the Delaware Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recovered seven lizards, the largest measuring 6 feet long and weighing 25 pounds.

"They're alive and well," said SPCA director John Caldwell. He added that one of the reptiles recovered was acting aggressively, "actually going toward you, mouth open."

Caldwell said the lizards have small but very sharp teeth and muscular, whip-like tails that can seriously injure a person. In the wild, they eat eggs, birds and other animals, he said.

"In captivity, we feed them raw chicken and liver. You can also feed them hard-boiled eggs," he said.

The SPCA will try to place the lizards with zoos or educational groups, Caldwell said. Barring that, they will be euthanized.

The lizards are considered exotic pets in Delaware and cannot be acquired without a permit from the state Department of Agriculture.

State veterinarian Dr. H.W. Towers said the department stopped issuing such permits for New Castle County residents in 1997 after the county passed an ordinance to stop the proliferation of exotic pets.

Caldwell said he was told that Huff was granted an exotic pet permit several years ago. Towers said he didn't know, however, if Huff had permits for all the lizards.

"If somebody had come for seven monitor lizards, somebody would have said something to me," Towers said.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002

Answers

Oooooouuuu!!!! why would you want a monitor lizard??? they aint' even CUTE! that mean one probably killed him for dinner!

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002

Where's the pictures?

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002

Heard on the local news about a guy who had a finger bitten off by a lizard he had caught in the wild. he had several pet lizards as well.

Seems it took a while to find the finger, it wasn't in the lizard. They finally found it out in the neighbor's yard, to mangled from chewing to re-attach it.

The guy's family was upset and wanted to get rid of all the lizards but he calmed them down.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002

Firefighters find finger after iguana bites it off at Hollywood home

sun-sentinel.com Posted January 15 2002, 5:09 PM EST

HOLLYWOOD -- Surgeons Tuesday evening were trying to reattach a finger to a 14-year-old boy after it was apparently bitten off by a 5-foot-long iguana lizard, police said.

Police shot and killed the animal after it bit the boy and severed the finger.

Firefighters then gutted the lizard in hopes of finding the missing finger in its stomach.

No luck.

Firefighters then donned state-of-the-art thermal imaging gear and eventually found the digit lying in the dirt.

The biting occurred around 3:15 p.m. at a home on the 6300 block of Mayo Street. [Did the lizard hold the mayo?]

The victim was not immediately identified nor was his condition at the hospital immediately known. It also was not known if the iguana was a pet.

Link

[according to the television news story, it wasn't a pet, and the finger could not be re-attached.]

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002