The capital was stunned in 2004, when undercover SSPCA officers caught a man keeping an alligator in a Leith tower block.
When he advertised the dangerous animal for sale, police, alongside officers from the animal welfare charity, met with him in a car park - and were confronted with the unrestrained creature in a car boot.
While the alligator was under his supervision, it was housed in his bathtub - before the potential danger of the animal was realised and he made the decision to sell.
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Anthony Quinn, 34, purchased the animal online thinking it was only 12” long. He told officers that while browsing for a pet, he came across the alligator and bought it for £250 from a man called Bobby Brown.
He told police that he was taken aback by its size when he picked it up yet proceeded to keep it in his 15th floor flat at Kirkgate House in Leith.
With enough frozen mice and brown trout to keep the creature happy, Quinn needed to find a way to keep it comfortable.
Initial plans to keep the caiman, a close relative of the alligator family, in a 4ft fish tank were soon ruined when he saw its size. After using his bath, he had fixed up a ‘heating contraption’ which police later said could have electrocuted the reptile.
When he finally realised he was in over his head, Anthony put up the advert to sell and hoped to make a profit. When he met with the SSPCA officers and plain-clothed police, all ownership rights to the animal were waived and it was moved to an animal sanctuary.
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Quinn was arrested, and held on trial in December 2004. He pleaded guilty to keeping a dangerous wild animal in his home without having a licence from Edinburgh City Council, to causing it unnecessary suffering by failing to keep it in the proper conditions, and to culpable and reckless conduct by endangering others.
His defence argued that he lived alone, and so no-one else had been put in danger. The caiman was set to be sent back to South America for breeding purposes when it is six years old.
SSPCA veteran Mike Flynn was one of the men who flew the gator on to Spain, picked up another animal, and on to their forever home. He told the Daily Record at the time: “When we arranged to meet him in a car park in Edinburgh, he opened the boot of the car and there was this loose five-and-a-half foot crocodile.
“Scotland is a fantastic nation of animal lovers, but you’re always going to get a percentage of people that think neglecting animals is their right.”
