The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks says that alligators are under its authority, and a Wilkinson County couple should not be able to sue ExxonMobil over the alligators on the oil company’s property because wildlife is not private property, and managing wildlife is the department’s domain, an Associated Press article says. Furthermore, the article says, the department said that, “wild alligators living in their natural habitat do not constitute a nuisance that should be abated.”

The Mississippi couple had filed suit when they found out that the alligators that were coming on to their property were traveling there from the ExxonMobil refinery waste disposal site next door. (Seriously, they bought property next to a refinery waste disposal site and they are worried about… alligators?)

Read the entire AP story in the Columbus Indiana Republic, here.

Photo: courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service