Insta-Gator
Ranch & Hatchery Raising alligators is all in a day’s work for John Price and his family STORY CHRISTINA COOPER PHOTOS KEVIN GARRETT & LOUISIANANORTHSHORE.COM
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t’s been a long time since John Price, owner of Insta-Gator Ranch & Hatchery, hatched his first eight-hundred some-odd alligators in the backyard of his Metairie home. Come September of the same year, 1989, he loaded those baby alligators into the family Buick and moved them, along with the entire Price family, to a beautiful parcel of land on Lowe Davis Road in Covington. John has an incredible passion for the American Alligator, and it shows. “Our kids were young then,” he remembers, “but it didn’t take long for them to gain an interest in alligators. Shortly thereafter they began taking care of the alligators, helping in egg harvesting and running a summer camp and selling snoballs in the summer. My wife, Stephanie, has also handled possibly the most important part: public relations and wound care,” he laughs.