The Alligator Is Not a Man-Eater Unless,of Course,It's Feeling Hungry

http://www.washingtonpost.com ^ | 5 18 06 | Ken Ringle

[freepatriot32]

Nature, it should be pointed out, always bats last. This is true even in Florida, where, as novelist Carl Hiaasen makes clear, life is more than a little surreal, and where three people were recently attacked and killed by alligators in less than a week. Previously, 17 people had died from alligator attacks in Florida since 1948. There is no record in the United States of three fatal alligator attacks in one year, much less in one week in one state.

So something clearly is going on in Florida. Yesterday, as if to emphasize Hiaasen's point, an alligator walked through the doggy door of a woman's house in Bradenton and went for her golden retriever. The woman grabbed a shotgun and blazed away. The alligator escaped with a flesh wound. The neighbors heard shots and called police, who promptly cited the woman for hunting without a license.

[freepatriot32]

The woman grabbed a shotgun and blazed away. The alligator escaped with a flesh wound. The neighbors heard shots and called police, who promptly cited the woman for hunting without a license.

Yep you have the ENALIANABLE RIGHT to LIFE until you try to defend it then your a common criminial

[freepatriot32]

ping

[beyond the sea]

Send a few of those alligators over to the Rio Grande.......... slow down some of those illegals.

;-)

[Ronin]

That was a fun read.

Worthy of a bump.

[mkjessup]

Send a few of those alligators over to the Rio Grande.......... slow down some of those illegals.

Got a better idea.

Send those alligators to the United States Senate and be sure they hear about the all-you-can-eat-buffet. :)

[bobjam]

Gator bait!

[Junior]

Every so often the human race needs a wakeup call that we are nowhere near the top of the food chain (it keeps the survivors on their toes...).

[sportutegrl]

The McIlhenny family from Avery Island, makers of Tabasco, which is quite good in my mother's gator sauce piquant.

[dc-zoo]

Must be why they're eating girls instead.

[engrpat]

Gators like sharks have to eat too....what is the issue? We must respect nature as we do diversity.

[wolfcreek]

Were these women distracted by Ipods? If not, I might suggest, run faster and don't feed the gators.

[jim_trent]

No one seems to mention that alligators were put on the endangered species list some years ago when there were very few of them. The population exploded. Exploded so much that they were recently removed (or moved to a lesser rung) from the endangered list. More alligators, more people, more "interactions". Seems obvious to me.

[Fawn]

They pointed out on the news how so many homes have been built on the alligator's territory.....and that is why they are there.....

[Paleo Conservative]

You beat me.

[Waverunner]

It's funny that in Florida, if a person did what the gator did, she could have legally shot him. Plus I'd take it to court, as I beleive hunting is generally considered an outdoors activity. Catching fish in the living room aquarium doesn't require a fishing license. ( I hope)
And chihuahuas make loust bait, use a poodle instead.

[Fudd]

>Send those alligators to the United States Senate...

I don't think there's a gator big enough to swallow the senior senator from Massataxes without choking.

[beyond the sea]

LOL ........ great minds................

;-)

[Skooz]

They pointed out on the news how so many homes have been built on the alligator's territory.....and that is why they are there.....

Bingo.

[LadyNavyVet]

I think that's too easy an answer. The liberal media always wants to blame people, but I think it's Mother Nature. Otherwise, why the huge change in gator behavior in the past few weeks? The gators didn't suddenly get more hungry. I think it's the lack of rain causing habitat to go away temporarily, so more gators are on the move. When we finally get some rain and all the lakes and ponds fill to capacity, the problem will go away. Just my humble opinion, based on no scientific facts whatsover.

[mkjessup]

>Send those alligators to the United States Senate...
I don't think there's a gator big enough to swallow the senior senator from Massataxes without choking.

So the gator brings 10 of his friends.

Of course, those friends should be prepared to lose half of their liver function by the time they finish dining on the marinaded fat azz from Mass. ;)

[traviskicks]

"The woman grabbed a shotgun and blazed away. The alligator escaped with a flesh wound. The neighbors heard shots and called police, who promptly cited the woman for hunting without a license."





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[Bon mots]

Send those alligators to the United States Senate and be sure they hear about the all-you-can-eat-buffet. :)

Great idea. Congress is excellent alligator habitat. Especially the Democrats with all their pork.

[mkjessup]

Send those alligators to the United States Senate and be sure they hear about the all-you-can-eat-buffet. :)
Great idea. Congress is excellent alligator habitat. Especially the Democrats with all their pork.

I believe the buffet should be bi-partisan, with specially prepared meals of Chaffee, Collins, Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Specter and Voinovich, all marinaded in a delicate RINO sauce to appeal to the alligator palate.

Bon appetit!

[LibertarianInExile]

This one could probably handle that fat POS. They'd have to import it from Georgia, and Teddy's molkey colinn would be stuck in a gator hole feeding it for weeks.

But that'd simply be justice, considering how he left Mary Jo to rot.

[mkjessup]

Oooooo, feel the LOVE!!! LOL ;)

[Night Hides Not]

It's good to remember, too, that alligators are particularly fond of dogs. Walking your beloved chihuahua beside a Florida canal is like offering them a taco on a leash.

My favorite paragraph of a great article.

[King of Florida]

Agreed, but we're only talking a three-foot gator hear. As Carl Hiaasen pointed out in his much better and more informative article, "If you see a gator that small eat a full-grown dog, call Ripley's immediately."

Hiaasen also points out that the biggest problem is people stupidly feeding gators down here instead of generally keeping their distance. Anyway, this whole gator mania thing is kind of like the summer of the shark a few years back -- an MSM-inspired frenzy. I live in one of the western subdivisions. Just keep pets and small children away from the wetland ponds and canals, and remember that gators can actually charge straight at you, but can't zig-zag (so you've got to zig and/or zag).

[King of Florida]

Someone just reminded me that the zig-zag response to a charging alligator is a myth, that the best thing to do is to just run away as fast as possible because gators won't run for very long (although run they will, at speeds up to 10 mph).

[Dustbunny]

We frequently forget that to the predator the world is a pantry and what it contains is supper or a tasty snack.