If You're Going to Oxford, Look Out for Crocodiles

(Feb. 6) -- If you were told the backyard you were passing was occupied by 24 crocodiles and alligators, you might expect to find yourself in, say, some part of South America. Perhaps Florida. Or possibly Australia. Or Africa's Nile Basin.

But a stone's throw from Oxford, England? One of the most scholarly places in the world, a legendary center of learning, and an industrial city as well?

That would be a surprise, to say the least. But it's true.

And in that yard, behind the house that Shaun Foggett shares with his fiancee and three young children, you would be in the company of some of the most endangered crocodiles and alligators in the world.

They include black caimans, Cuban crocodiles and a Chinese alligator, all housed in a building that Foggett erected to keep the reptiles at a constant 77 degrees, with each of the 10 species in a separate enclosure.

Carpentry is what 30-year-old Foggett does for a living, but all reptiles, including crocs and gators, have been his main interest since he was "a young lad," he said.

What sparked his interest? "Well, they're the top predator wherever they live in the world. They have been on the Earth for about 200 million years, and to have outlived the dinosaur is a remarkable thing."

He began by keeping two lizards at 17. By the time he was 23 he had obtained his license to keep a dwarf caiman alligator. Things took off from there. "I wanted to learn more."

Foggett's goal is to raise awareness of how endangered these reptiles are, and he is still "looking in all directions" for a location big enough to transform what is now the U.K.'s biggest private crocodile collection into the country's first crocodile park – "5,000 square feet and up," he said.

He denied British press reports that he had raised the equivalent of thousands of dollars to achieve his goal. Once he finds the location he wants, Foggett says, he plans to pay for it with money from his own savings and by taking out a second mortgage on his home. He also intends to write to major U.K. companies asking for their backing.

Two years ago Foggett owned only three crocodiles, but through financial donations to private collectors and zoos across Europe, he acquired eight more. Eleven of them bred, but not all the young ones survived. At present he owns 14 older reptiles and 10 babies.

He stresses that he doesn't look on any of them as pets, and that they're not cheap to keep. Feeding the crocs and gators, along with expenses such as the electricity required to keep the temperature steady, costs him close to $13,000 a year.

Living with potentially dangerous reptiles might be heaven for Foggett. But what about his fiancee, Lisa Green, 28, and the children, Billy, 6; Louise, 4; and 8-month-old Shania? Not to mention the neighbors.

"The kids are used to them and don't find it any different from having other animals around,'' he said. "But they don't go to see them often."

And the neighbors, for their part, keep their distance, although the reptiles are kept securely locked up. (A vet visits once a year to make sure they're being properly looked after.)

"They all know about the crocodiles but have never been 'round to see them,'' Foggett said. "But then I've never really gone out of my way to invite them!"

Foggett's abiding yen for the scaly creatures has led him to set up his own Web site, "Crocodiles of the World." Crocodiles "need our help as many species are now critically endangered,'' the site proclaims, adding: "Wherever crocodilians have lived they have been hunted relentlessly for their skin and meat. Another cause for decline in wild populations is habitat destruction. Sadly both of these reasons are caused by humans."

Thinking of crocodiles may cause most people to be afraid, he said, "with horror stories of enormous monsters that lay waiting, motionless and camouflaged in the water, ready to grab any human that goes near the water's edge."

But, he adds, "this is simply not true."

Foggett is not the only Brit who has given over his home to an endangered reptile. Chris Weller, 63, moved into the loft of his house in Kent, southeast England, so that his pet caiman crocodile could roam through the house eating supermarket steaks and prawns, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

And according to the licenses issued under the United Kingdom's Dangerous Wild Animal Act, a Telegraph survey showed, there are 611 ostriches, one red panda and 141 lemurs among the total of 4,296 exotic animals registered by private owners.

Not by zoos, not pet shops, not by those doing scientific research. Just the guy 'round the corner, the fellow across the street, the chap next door, the bloke who rides to town on his bike. And their wives, fiancees and girlfriends, too, of course.