Originally, a group of folks had the great idea to raise and breed a tropical ciclid,
Tilapia in the San Luis Valley where natural hot springs heat the pools. They breed them for size and for the white coloration which differentiates the meat's appearance from catfish. Fish farming also means lots of dead fish, so another great idea -- Alligators. The natural fish garbage disposal, not to mention they can tolerate cold weather if you have to save the heat for the fish; freeze 'em, thaw 'em out and they swim off as if nothing has happened.
But aren't they cute? Pretty soon everyone is flocking to see the gators and more and more people are donating unwanted reptiles and amphibians to this fish farm (not to mention emus, ostriches, and a donkey). It's a regular zoo. The enterprising folks realize that perhaps fish farming is not the only money maker here.
People (by which I mean my family) pay money to come in, buy the food that the gators get anyway, and do the actual feeding for you. Not to mention that, for those that don't think the gators are so cute, there are other commercial avenues such as gator meat (cut against the grain to avoid a shoe leather texture, marinate for a long time, and it tastes like chicken-elk-cow-pork), gator hides, gator wrestling classes, gator teeth, gator souvenir pictures, and so forth. This is the Colorado Gators operation run by savvy, down to earth, very friendly folks.
2 comments:
Ah, I always wondered why there were alligators there.
There are far more nefarious purposes, but commercialism seems the worst. It's far neater to make a shallow grave in the desert than drop someone into an alligator pit. On the other hand, maybe they do a side business with melodramatic arch-villains.
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