Game Warden Drags, Kills Alligator(on a Houston suburb's residential street-on video)

Channel 2 Pseudo-News website ^ | 4/29/03 | Channel 2 sleazeball tabloid newsroom

[Diddle E. Squat]

Game Warden Drags, Kills Alligator Katy Residents Angry Over Gator's Death

POSTED: 8:47 a.m. CDT April 29, 2003 UPDATED: 11:04 a.m. CDT April 29, 2003

KATY, Texas -- Some Houston-area residents said they were upset Monday at the way a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department game warden got rid of 9-foot alligator in their neighborhood.

Residents told News2Houston that they called authorities after discovering the gator Thursday in the middle of a road in the 22000 block of Lodgestone Court in a Cinco Ranch neighborhood in Katy.

Witnesses recorded the gator's capture on videotape, in which the game warden was seen tying the animal to the back of his pickup, and then dragging it down the street while children and parents watched.

"It was very inhumane," resident Lara Mercadante said. "It was awful. It was absolutely unreal. If you weren't here you would not believe that it happened. We never thought that it was going to end up the way it did."

The game warden then took the alligator to the end of the street, and shot and killed it, authorities said.

TPWD officials said that although it is not typical practice for their officers to tow a live alligator behind a truck, they believe that the game warden followed what he felt was the most effective course of action.

However, officials said that as of a result of the incident, they are now reviewing their policies regarding nuisance alligator removal.

[Diddle E. Squat]

How long until some nitwit journalist/politician compares this to Jasper?

[freeeee]

Exactly how else did they think the 9 foot alligator was going to get to the end of the street?

I witnessed one grown man accompanied by two teenage boys (sons?) trap a huge gator (easily 9 - 10 feet) and load it into the bed of a pickup truck. They were a private service requested by the county to remove large nuisance gators.

They clearly had done it before, as were methodical and efficient in their work.

IMO, the problem mentioned in the article was caused by a lack of experience compounded by a lack of manpower. Either that, or the game warden was a second rate piker who didn't really care about doing a professional job. Just because he was a game warden doesn't mean he was a professional or cared about his work.

[Diddle E. Squat]

The Channel 13 messageboard on this is fun lunch hour reading(and somehow the Dixie Chicks got invoked during the alligator debate). One example:


Subject: Aliigator Cruelty 45 people have read this message
Author: katymom42 4 people have recommended it
Recommend this Message




I witnessed the tragedy. Channel 13 did a great job reporting it. It WAS NOT being aggressive. In fact after an hour of doing nothing, once the warden arrived and LASSOED him, the gator tried to BACK UP away from everyone. Once lassoed we all thought he was going to save the gator. Instead, unannounced he got in his truck and started driving. It all happened in a matter of seconds. We had no time to respond. EVERYONE was in shock and screaming. The kids saw the dragging and heard the shot. They are not stupid. This was cruel and senseless. How can we as a society stand by and allow these things to happen? What does this teach our children? AND I DO STOP AND MOVE TURTLES IN THE STREET.

[dd5339]

Where was Steve Irwin when you need him?

Personally,glad the higher ups here at work chose to send us to Dallas instead of Houston.

Can you imagine walking the dog and wandering across a 9' gator?

Wonder what ammo would be best for dispatching rogue gators?

Semper Fi

[Diddle E. Squat]

This sounded like a job for you and your sword...

[Manic_Episode]

They should've gotten Steve Irwin.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Prehaps we should have just feed the PETA members to the gator.

Then the gator would have been full and happy, making it easier to move and no one would be left to complain about it.

[Dog Gone]

I saw this on the news this morning. They were interviewing all the traumatized soccer moms who witnessed the cruelty.

This is my neighborhood and I'm glad this sucker is dead. I'm still not sure how he got into that pond, but I don't need to be stepping on no steenkin' alligator when I stumble out to get the morning newspaper.

[Jay D. Dyson]

No, but why would he drag it first and then shoot it? Sounds unnecessarily cruel to me.

I concur. Though the gator is not an animal to be trifled with (indeed, it is a dangerous beast), dragging an animal -- any animal -- is cruel.

I totally understand the need to destroy the animal, but the guy went about it the wrong way. That he did it in full view of people who don't understand the need for the animal's destruction has only complicated the matter.

-Jay

[RooRoobird14]

Well, go ahead and flame away--I don't think any animal should be dragged behind a truck. You'd think the game warden would have come more prepared to handle the alligator--it's not like he was called out to remove a baby duck, you know.

[freeeee]

This is my neighborhood and I'm glad this sucker is dead.

I agree. I have to deal with them too and they're a big danger to my dogs.

That said, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. The issue here isn't the removal and destruction of the nuisance gator. That's a done deal. The issue is the improper and decidedly unprofessional method used by the game warden.

[Liberal Classic]

My guess is he lassoed it to keep it from moving towards people. Get it away from bystanders and then shoot it.

[Recon by Fire]

Big deal, the gator was going to gator heaven anyway.

[Paul C. Jesup]

You have no idea on how dangerious a alligator can be.

[HamiltonJay]

Dragged the gator away from the gawkers and killed it... seems like the right thing to do in my view.

[SoDak]

I agree. It's time the world's soccer moms grow up.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

We've had a lot of Californians and Yankees move to Houston...

.. and they all move to Katy!

Californians and yankees in Katy Ping!!!

[RooRoobird14]

If the alligator had to be destroyed, so be it. I would think they would have tried to relocate it, though. Dragging the gator on its belly was wrong. If the game warden couldn't handle the gator, he should have called for back-up and waited--and told the soccer moms to round up their kids, dogs and cats and get off the street.

I'm not a PETA freak, but I will tell you (as a former wildlife biology major) that some game wardens can show depraved indifference to animal life--I know, because I witnessed it firsthand. That's one of the reasons I changed majors from wildlife biology to engineering.

[Search4Truth]

IMHO, he should have shot it, then dragged it away. The way he did it was a little theatrical, but would have received only gestures of a found farewell from my neighbors.