I've spent much of my career trying, with varying degrees of success, to convince people that wildlife is meant to be cherished, not feared. That includes all wildlife, even the species that we can consider scary. Even animals that can undeniably be dangerous, maybe even lethal, to us, aren't monsters that seek to harm or kill people for the hell of it. They're just... animals. Trying to survive, independent of our own morals and values.
So even apart from all of the many, many objectionable aspects of it, I've not been a fan of the memes and jokes about the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" that's been in the news so much.
That's not how alligators work. They aren't going to patrol the edge of this camp, eating up any desperate escapees. If that's how this worked, we'd never have poaching in any of our southeastern parks and reserves. We don't use them for security guards at the zoo. I've carelessly stepped over alligators before while cleaning their exhibits. And when I see people snark about "Alligator Lives Matter" or "Alligators Need to Eat Too!" I just feel my skin crawl. These are animals that I have a lot of fondness and appreciation of - great hunters and survivors, yes, but also wetland engineers and surprisingly tender parents. They aren't props for a weird, B-movie fantasy.
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