An alligator was found and later killed last Saturday on the Applegate River in southern Oregon.

Oregon State Police gave this account:

At 4 p.m. Aug. 8, OSP Senior Trooper Marty Marchand responded to a report that two small children went down to the Applegate River near Murphy southeast of Grants Pass where they saw an alligator on a log.

Marchand confirmed the report and felt the 3½-foot alligator could not be captured alive before it may have got back into the water.

There were no homes in the area from where it may have come from, and it was not known if the alligator escaped from an unknown home or was intentionally released by its owner. Oregon state law prohibits the release of non-native species into the wild.

Due to safety concerns that may arise trying to capture the alligator before it returned to the water, the trooper shot and killed it before climbing out onto the log and retrieving it.

Anyone with information regarding where the alligator may have originated from is asked to call Marchand at (541) 955-6373.