Athens — Here’s a fact you probably didn’t know: Michigan is one of only nine states where it’s totally legal to own an alligator without a permit. If you want to keep an alligator in your backyard pool, have at it.
Something else you probably didn’t know: Michigan is also home to one of the only alligator sanctuaries in the country. Not surprisingly, it’s the place where a lot of those pet gators end up.
The Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary is located on M-66 in Athens, about 15 miles south of Battle Creek. They have more than 200 reptiles living there—mostly alligators, but also tortoises, turtles, snakes, and lizards. All are rescue animals.
They’re open to the public from May through early October and they’d love for you to visit. It’s an incredibly cool family trip, with the opportunity to not only see the animals, but also touch and hold them. (Don’t worry—the alligators you hold have their mouths taped shut.)
If you’re shocked to learn that Michigan of all places has an alligator sanctuary, you’re not alone. There are several alligator sanctuaries in Florida but only a handful outside of there. Michigan and Colorado are the only states outside of the Sun Belt to have one.
“Everybody’s surprised when they find out we’re here,” said Lina Kelly, director of the Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary and daughter of the facility’s founders, David and Carmen Critchlow. “In Michigan, alligators are a totally legal pet to have, so anyone can buy one. That’s why there are so many up here.”
And as Kelly explained, a lot of the people who get an alligator as a pet quickly realize it’s a bad idea to have an alligator as a pet. “That’s when they call us,” she said. “We have a lot of alligators here from Michigan, and we actually have them from 22 states in all.”
The typical profile of an alligator owner?
“It’s usually young guys that bought the alligator soon after they moved out of their parents’ house, and then three, four, five years later, they’re like, yeah, I’m finally getting a job or I’m moving in with somebody or starting a family and just don’t have the time, the space, or the money. And mom and dad don’t want it, so they need to find a new place,” she said.
Of all the young guys who buy alligators, they’re especially popular with frat boys.
“We have three alligators here that came from frat houses,” Kelly said. “They get one and then realize it was a pretty bad idea.”
One of the frat-boy alligators came from a state where it’s not legal to own them and a sorority on campus ratted them out. The authorities confiscated it and brought it to Michigan.
As for how Athens came to have an alligator sanctuary, it all started about 20 years ago when David Critchlow, who was a delivery driver at the time, started collecting unwanted reptiles from people.
“It’s basically my dad’s hobby,” Kelly said. “It was mostly snakes and iguanas when I was a kid, but it kind of went from there. He started working with like law enforcement and helping them with any reptiles that they needed help with.”
Eventually there were too many snakes, lizards, and alligators to keep at home, so he came up with the idea to start a sanctuary. When the community leaders in Athens heard about it, they reached out to Critchlow and offered to find him a suitable piece of land there.
“It was in 2007 during the recession and the town of Athens thought this would be a nice tourist attraction for their town,” Kelly said. “That’s how we came here.”
They don’t breed any of the animals, so every single one is a rescue. And every one has a story.
One of the alligators was being used as security for a drug house. “They had him chained up outside,” Kelly said.
One of the biggest gators there, an 11-foot-long beast named Godzilla, was being sold in a pet store that went out of business. When the store closed, Godzilla needed a place to go.
As for what the tropical animals do during the winter in ice-cold Michigan, Kelly said they’re all loaded into shipping containers that are heated to 60 degrees.
“They stay right on our property,” she said. “We have ponds and habitats inside and depending on the animal’s size and species, they’ll either go all winter without eating or they’ll eat a little. It’s call brumating. They aren’t hibernating but their metabolism slows down.”
Then in April and May, they all come out and enjoy the Michigan weather, just like the rest of us.
Kelly and the sanctuary staff also take the gators on field trips all year, bringing them to schools throughout Michigan and neighboring states for educational programs.
They also do on-site training for law enforcement, zookeepers, veterinarians, and others, showing them how to safely handle reptiles.
A visit to the Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary is a great family trip. You can pay a little extra to hold an alligator (either a small one or a medium-sized one, depending on your preference), and the tortoises hang out at the fence and are very easy to see and touch. Even the snakes and lizards on display in the gift shop are cool to see.
But the stars of the show are the alligators—more than a hundred of them, in all sizes.
Moral of the story: It might be legal to own an alligator in Michigan, but you could just come to Athens and you’ll get all the gator experience you want.
Visiting the Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary
The Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary is located at 1698 M-66 in Athens, Michigan. They’re open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., from early May through Oct. 1. Admission is $13.95 per person, with children 2 and under admitted free. If you’re interested in having an alligator assembly at your school, contact Lina Kelly at lina@alligatorsanctuary.com.
Buddy Moorehouse teaches documentary filmmaking at Hillsdale College.
