By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Surprised. Frightened. Shocked. Take your pick – Paul Sorrell was all three.
It was not quite Halloween when Sorrell – a Kentucky Game Warden – seized a three-foot alligator from a residence in Bellevue, Ky. in late September.
“I never thought I’d write a search warrant for an alligator,” Sorrell told the Northern Kentucky Tribune, at the Radisson Hotel – the site of this week’s Covington Rotary Club meeting.
Sorrell explained the Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department had responded to a call at the residence and notified wardens about an alligator in the basement. He said a search warrant was obtained, and executed, and an investigation followed finding the alligator.
“It seems the resident had purchased it at a reptile show in Indiana earlier in the year and had failed to check if it was legal to possess in Kentucky. The alligator’s owner was cited for not having the necessary permit and faced a minimal fine. However, fines for such violations can range from $50 to $1,000 and offenders could even face jail time.
Sorrell said the alligator has since been relocated to a reptile zoo in Eastern Kentucky.
It was the first alligator he had encountered in his seven years with the department. A case, for sure, Sorrell never dreamed he would be involved with after his graduating from Northern Kentucky University.
“I grew up in the country, cleaning woods and I really enjoyed hunting when I was young,” the Simon Kenton High School alum said. “I became a parole office in 2011, and I figured I could combine the outdoors with law enforcement.”
That is what he did, and he has been with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources the past seven years.
That department, he explained to the group, is an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and is responsible for the conservation of wildlife resources and for boating projects in the Commonwealth.
A Commissioner appointed by the Fish and Wildlife Commission heads the department. The commission – which oversees the department’s commissioner and promulgates regulations governing fishing, hunting, and boating – is a nine-member bipartisan board appointed by the governor from a list of candidates nominated by active hunters and anglers in each of nine geographic districts in the Commonwealth.
The mission of the department, according to Sorrell, is to conserve, protect and enhance Kentucky’s fish and wildlife resources and provide outstanding opportunities for fishing, hunting, trapping, boating, shooting sports, wildlife viewing and related activities.
“We are fully certified police officers,” Sorrell said. “We do it all, traffic stops, DUI; but our main concern is Chapter 150 – Hunting and Fishing Regulations and, Chapter 235 – Boating.”
Summertime, he says, means policing the water.
“We enforce all of the Ohio River,” he said. “We are the Fifth District in Northern Kentucky.” The state has 10 districts in 13 counties. “We reach out to Trimble County in the West and Bracken County in the East.”
And, who knew – “The Ohio River is a large contributor to the caviar market,” Sorrell said. “In the summer, the market is catfish.”
“The big push,” he added, “is for predator control. One can hunt coyote at night now.”
But what about exotic pets? How about snakes, or monkeys?
“A pet in the Commonwealth can only be legal if the species is native to Kentucky,” he said.
As for funding the department, that comes from the licensing, which begins March 1st and continues through the last day of February; and, new licenses are required annually, he said. Resident and nonresident youth younger than age 12 are not required to purchase licenses or permits to hunt – except the elk lottery application., Resident and nonresident youth ages 15 and younger are not required to purchase licenses or permits to fish.
Paul Sorrell is currently a Field Training Officer, assists with academy training and is the district’s Public Information Officer. He recently won the Officer of the Year award from the League of Kentucky Sportsmen.
Ya think catching an alligator had something to do with that award?