Stray gator no match for pet store owner

“It was waiting, aggressive and ready to attack,’’ Schenck said yesterday. When the moment was right, Schenck pounced, maneuvering around the 5-foot reptile’s open jaws as he subdued it Sunday.

Schenck was not in Africa or even Florida. He was tangling with the stray 50-pound reptile in a dirty drainage ditch behind a Fall River mall.

The gator was spotted several times near Route 24 Sunday, before Schenck and local officials responded about 4:30 p.m. Schenck said he was relaxing at Horseneck Beach when his brother texted him about the wandering alligator.

“I thought he was crazy,’’ Schenck said. Less than an hour later, he was face-to-snout with the beast.

“When I got there, no one was going to go into the swamp, and the general consensus was that the Environmental Police would just put it down,’’ Schenck said. “I’m one of those people that refuses to see an animal die, even if it requires me to jump in a swamp full of leeches.’’

Moments later, he emerged with the alligator in his arms; its jaws wrapped shut with electrical tape.

“Thank God [Schenck] was there,’’ said Cynthia Berard, Fall River’s animal control supervisor. “He’s amazing.’’ Two weeks ago, Schenck captured a 5-foot-long boa constrictor in Fall River and is keeping it at his pet store, Animal Instincts.

But without a permit, the self-described animal expert could not keep the alligator, so he handed it over to Environmental Police. State laws prohibit owning alligators unless for educational or scientific purposes.

The alligator discovered Sunday was among 50 or so authorities expect to recover this year across the Commonwealth, one of the most unfavorable states in the country for the reptiles.

“It’s just too cold; they couldn’t survive the winter,’’ said Harvard professor Jonathan Losos, a reptile specialist.

The Fall River alligator was subdued about a mile from the Rhode Island line, where it is about as easy to buy an alligator as a pack of cigarettes.

“They need to be a Rhode Island resident,’’ said Shawn Say, owner of Regal Reptiles in Pawtucket, a wholesaler that sells 15 to 20 gators per year. “And, yeah, 18 years or older or a parent’s permission.’’

Schenck surmised that the gator he captured Sunday had been freed or escaped in Rhode Island and then wandered north. Berard said she believed that there are more alligators near the Rhode Island line, recalling two discovered in a Fall River apartment in 2006.

But Massachusetts officials do not believe the area is a hot spot for stray gators, said Kate Plourd, spokeswoman for the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Schenck said the animal appeared to have been eating well and to have been in the area for at least a few months, evidenced by a dozen leeches the size of a half-dollar hanging from its stomach.

Plourd said a reptile specialist now has the alligator and will find a legal home for it.

Schenck wants to adopt the gator for his traveling animal education program, which also features a 90-pound tortoise and a 6-foot iguana.

“I feel attached,’’ he said. “I kind of saved its life, so I want to see a happy ending.’’