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Judge isn't likely to be wild about couple keeping caimans

By Igor Drobyshev, Staff Reporter

Each time the Fire Department visited Mike and Betsy Gimbels' loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for routine inspections the first thing the officials would say was not: "Thank you. Your sprinklers are all right." Instead, they would say: "We've seen your alligators. They look very nice."

Flattered, the Gimbels would smile.

Now the Gimbels are not amused. Last Monday, they were told at a Health Department hearing that the firemen should have requested a license for keeping the animals, which are actually caimans, a smaller version of South American alligators.

According to Section 161.01 of the New York City Health Code, species of this kind are wild, ferocious and dangerous.

The caimans were removed by the police last October from a pond in the Gimbels' loft and put into the custody of the Bronx Zoo.

"The first time any government agency inquired about whether we had a license was here, at this hearing," said Mike Gimbel.

Ilene Shifrin, the administrative judge on the Gimbels' case, said she understood their feelings, acknowledging that her own brother had a snake. Gimbel said Shifrin, a Health Department employee, seemed to try to be as fair and objective as she could.

Cross-examination of the Gimbels by Shifrin and Martha Robinson, assistant general counsel for the Health Department, showed a weakness in the "caiman parents'" position.

Although Mike Gimbel contended that the Fire Department visits meant the animals were de facto permitted, the judge's point was hard as stone: For more than 20 years the couple had kept the animals without a license.

The only hope that's left is what the Gimbels' lawyer, Warren Goodman, called the "battle of the experts."

Reptile specialists for the city will testify that caimans are wild, fierce and ferocious, and one from the Gimbels' side will say they are not.

Defending the latter point is difficult: these are animals that are natural predators. "But they were kept in the place for 20 years without any animal escaping, anybody being injured," Goodman asserted. They were kept there for public interest and exhibition, he added, and hundreds, if not thousands of people, including school classes, came to look at the caimans.

There's no date for the final ruling, but Mike Gimbel said he liked the judge and her reactions, which seemed fair to him so far.

"I think she would like to give us the animals back," he said. "But that's not necessarily what her ruling is going to be. She's not really that independent. And the law and justice are not the same thing."


The Bronx Beat, March 13, 1995