Australia, crocodiles burst into the election campaign: is it right to keep them at home as pets?

LONDRA – It is said that many people vote “with their wallets,” that is, thinking primarily of their own economic interests. Others vote to defend democracy from authoritarianism. But perhaps it had never happened before that, somewhere in the world, crocodiles were among the issues debated in an election. To be precise, crocodiles as pets.

It happened in Australia or, better, in one of the states that make up that immense country/continent: the Northern Territory. A vast region, as large as Italy, Austria, Germany, France and Benelux put together, with just 250 thousand inhabitants, therefore semi-uninhabited. However, it is very populated by crocodiles: there are more than 100 thousand of them, the largest population of alligators in the wild on the entire planet.

A much smaller number of crocodiles have found a home in the Northern Territory: in the homes of humans, who keep them like a dog or a cat. Only a hundred people have obtained such a permit from the local authorities, but they are making their voices heard, also because their state is the last in Australia that allows such large reptiles to be kept as “pets”, that is, as domestic animals.

Of course, they don’t keep them in the kitchen or the bathtub. There’s plenty of space in the Northern Territory, after all. Crocodile owners have homes with plenty of land around them, often a pond or a river running through their farm. But animal rights activists are not happy with that either: keeping a crocodile in the home, they say, is dangerous for humans and harmful or cruel to animals. Owners say that some of their beasts, even though they can grow up to 5 metres in length and have fearsome jaws, have grown up indoors; and that, when they have space to move around and are fed regularly, they are not at all aggressive.

The issue has thus become a topic of the campaign for this week’s election. The Labor Party, in power for eight years in the Northern Territory, was in favor of banning private ownership of crocodiles, bringing the state into line with the rest of Australia. The Liberal Party, in opposition, has instead pledged to maintain the permit. And surprisingly, it was the Liberal Party, in the results announced today, that prevailed, and is now poised to take power.

Other issues contributed to Labor’s defeat, such as the decision to allow alcohol in Aboriginal communities, the high cost of living, and rising crime. But the tiny crocodile-owning community is jubilant. “Big Jack has been part of our family for 22 years, he’s like a brother to my daughter,” she told Bbc Trevor Sullivanwho has 11 alligators on his “farm”, another of which, Shah, is over a century old. “There’s nothing like crocodiles,” Trevor assures, “they’re the Harley Davidsons of pets.” But then he admits that Shah, before entering his private stable, had killed a man.

During the election campaign in the Northern Territory, a crocodile devoured and killed a 12-year-old girl who had gone swimming in a creek. The tragedy did not affect the vote. Now it remains to be seen whether the new Liberal government will keep its promise to let the region’s residents continue to keep alligators as pets. And whether the story will inspire a film or series of films about crocodiles, like “Crocodile Dundee,” which has become a cult hit inside and outside Australia.