Derrell Shipes, who supervises wildlife and fisheries policy at the S.C. Natural Resources Department, said his agency agreed to help the poultry industry determine whether alligators are efficient dead-chicken disposals. Gov. Jim Hodges said he has not seen the bill and doesn't know whether he would sign it. Sharpe says the proposal is more economical than trucking the carcasses to incinerators. And he predicted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will one day prohibit burying the birds. Scientists say that alligators have the most acidic stomachs in the animal kingdom.
Alligators can digest bones, beaks and feathers.
Their muscular jaws do not chew food, but simply rip and tear their prey into chunks they can swallow. Last year, there were about 10 alligator farms operated in conjunction with chicken farms in Georgia. Shipes said some of those farmers were grinding the dead chickens into mush to allow the hatchling alligators to feed on the chickens as well. Legislation before the General Assembly would allow a three-year pilot project to see if alligator farms could become a viable way to dispose of dead chickens and turkeys that now must be buried, burned, composted or rendered into products such as dog food. The alligator is a protected species, and it's illegal to capture them in the wild or take their eggs.