People 'going crazy' over [alligator] attacks

Sarasota Herald Tribune ^ | 5/16/06 | MICHAEL A. SCARC

[OldFriend]

In NJ a homeowner was heavily fined for shooting a bear that was breaking into his house.

[Chanticleer]

I'm not a hunter, but maybe you or someone who is a hunter can clarify. From what I can read, Gator season is open Aug. 5- Nov. 1, the limit is two gators per permit, and the cost is $272 for Florida resident and $1,022 for non-residents just to apply for the lottery. Only a certain number of permits are issued, once issued, you can only "harvest" during certain hours of the day using certain techniques.

Do you think we could open that up just a tad?

[doc30]

You got to be kidding me? Protect your own life from a gator attack, and get charged for hunting without a permit. Like she really went hunting for the gator? Asinine!

On top of that, the gator wasn't just on the woman's property. A lanai is a screen room, so technically the gator was in her house! It probably got in through a doggy door. Alligators are a protected species in FL and you can't mess with them in any way without getting in trouble with some government agency.

[RoseofTexas]

"then Frey shot the reptile four times."

This gave me a great chuckle..:)

Thank heavens for guns!! LOL

[Sabramerican]

Almost. To be more similar, the officer would have first gotten dental work for the alligator.

[dukeman]

The gator population was in bad shape in the not too distant past, so the state restricted hunting them pretty severely. They've bounced back pretty well. We have a momma and 10 babies in the lake behind my house right now!

[Chanticleer]

Well, they put in those regulations when I was young (1973), and I can tell you they've made a tremendous comeback. I think we could loosen up the regs a bit more.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

One of the biggest problems I see, and I see tons of gators, is the folks see a gator and immediately start feeding it. Most gators are afraid of people, but when they start feeding them, they lose their fear and sometimes attack. As the sign says going into Yellowstone: "Please don't feed the bears!" Same applies to the gators.

[poobear]

They're easy to kill. Shine them with a light and pop them with a 22 caliper between the eyes. In daylight just wait them out in the shallows. Same thing. Been swimming with these guys all my life. Well not exactly. They are NOT an endangered species.

[Chanticleer]

Thought this was interesting....

• Oscar Scherer State Park, Florida - August 16 1973, Sharon Holmes, 16, killed at dusk by an 11'3" male alligator that had been fed by park visitors.
• Peace River Canal, Florida - September 29 1977, George Leonard, 52 was attacked and killed by a 7' female alligator while swimming at about 8:30 pm.
• Martin County, Florida - September 10 1978, 14 year old Phillip Rastrelli was attacked and killed by an 11 foot male alligator while swimming in Hidden River Canal at 12:00 pm.
• St. Lucie County, Florida - August 6th 1984, 11 year old Robert Crespo was attacked and killed by 12'4" alligator while swimming at 4:30 pm.
• Wakulla River, Florida - July 13th 1987 George Cummings III, 29 was killed by a an 11 foot male alligator while snorkeling at about 2:00 pm.
• Charlotte County, Florida - On July 4th 1988, a 4 year old girl Erin Glover was killed by a 10'7" male alligator as she walked along the shore of Hidden Lake at 6:00 pm.
• Martin County, Florida - June 19th 1993, Bradley Weidenhamer a 10 year old male was killed an 11'4" alligator while wading in the Loxahatchee River in Jonathan Dickinson State Park at 6:00 in the evening.
• Sumter County, Florida - October 3 1993, 70 year old Grace Eberhart was killed at Lake Serenity. Circumstances of her death are unknown except that she died of a broken neck caused by an alligator bite to the head and neck. Multiple alligators could have been involved in the attack.
• Volusia County, Florida - March 21st 1997, 3 year old Adam Binford was killed when he strayed outside of a roped off swimming area at Lake Ashby. His body was recovered the next about 1 mile from the attack site. An 11 foot alligator suspected of the attack was later killed by a trapper.
• Sarasota County, Florida - May 4th 2001, 70 year old Samuel Wetmore's body discovered in pond near his home with 8'4" alligator was circling nearby. Mr. Wetmore died of blood loss and trauma.
• Polk County, Florida - June 23 2001, 2 year old Alexandria Murphy wondered away from her fenced back yard and was killed by a 6'6" alligator 700 feet from her home on Lake Cannon.
• Sanibel, Florida - September 11th 2001, 82 year old Robert Steele was attacked and killed while walking his dog on a trail between two wetland areas in the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge. FWC officers later killed a 10'9" and 6' alligator.
• Lake County, Florida - June 18th 2003, 12 year old Brian Griffin was attacked while swimming near a boat ramp on the Dead River. The alligator was 10'4" long 339 pounds and was subsequently destroyed along with several other large gators.
• Sanibel Island, Florida - June 2004, 54 year old Janie Melsek was attacked and killed by a 12 foot long, 457 pound alligator, while working on landscaping.
• Lee County, Florida - 20 year old Michelle Reeves was killed by a 7'11" male alligator when she went swimming after midnight in a retention pond at Lee Memorial Health Park
• Lakeland, Florida - March 15th 2005, fishermen discovered the body of 56 year old Don Owen about 12 miles from his home, he had been missing since March 9th. Trappers later caught an 8'9" 300 pound alligator that had Mr. Owens forearm in it's stomach. It was later determined that the alligator had been fed by area residents which is illegal.
• Port Charlotte, Florida - July 15 2005, Kevin Albert Murray, 41, was swimming in the Apollo Waterway when a 12-foot alligator attacked and killed him.
• Sunrise Florida - May 10, 2006 Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, went out for an evening jog and was last seen dangling her feet over the water of a canal near her home. Her partially consumed body was found in the canal the following morning.

  From Southeastern Outdoors

  The Adam Binford story still haunts me. My daughter was only two months old when it happened. He was playing with his dog while his family enjoyed a picnic. The mother heard a splash, saw the roiling water, but could do nothing. I couldn't sleep for days.

  I don't want them hunted to extinction -- they're part of living in Florida. But I do think we need to consider making "harvesting" a bit easier.

[tet68]

The three fatal attacks have come during the peak of alligator mating season, when the animals are moving around in search of mates.

It's a jungle out there.

[GladesGuru]

Please note that the combat booted fascists in the green suits accused her of hunting when they released the wounded gator. By definition, if the gator is wounded, and has already been a "nuisance gator" the GangGreen Persons should have killed the gator on the spot.

Note GangGreen has taught the gator that it can survive attacking away from the water and around a home. Smooth Move, Bowels!

On the other hand, one has to ask why the home owner/dog owner didn't finish the gator off earlier. Gun control does mean hitting one's target. Hopefully, the wounded gator is now being digested by a larger gator.

Gators are kept on teh "species of special concern" list so that the agency can be grown. Protection of the citizens is not on the agency agenda; sucking up to the animal rights movement is.

Given that keeping citizens from carrying a gun on all state lands has effectively removed the citizen;s right to defend themselves against the state's predators, it must therefore be assumed that the agencies place mere reptiles as equally as important as humans.

After all, did not the enviro-commies in the animal rights whacko crowd say that "a bug is a rat is a boy"? The agencies have all too many AgencyPersons who share that warped view. Florida must allow citizens to carry arms on all state lands, parks, preserves, and canal banks.

Yes, Virginia, they will occasionally kill an animal. Better a mere animal than a human.

'Twill be a far, far better thing that they will do than
they have been yet been allowed to do."

My apologies to Charles Dickens

[GladesGuru]

Joe,

Don't blame the victim. The real reason for predators attacking, killing, and eating humans is that we no longer are at the top of the food chain.

Thanks to the enviro-socialists in the animal rights dumpster, man has been removed from his position as top predator. Without a gun, man is but slow moving, defenseless, food for many predators.

While that is what the 'dumpster denizens' want, the rest of us should be busy instructing our representatives as to how we want our Unalienable Right to defend our life and property given back to us, ASAP!

[brytlea]

We have more in common than I thought.
susie

[dukeman]

The first entry from your list, the attack in Oscar Scherer State Park, is the one I was referring to in one of my earlier posts in this thread. I incorrectly remembered the victim as a smaller child. It was a scary story around here.

[GladesGuru]

"Frey said the gunshot wounds appeared to self-heal and the wildlife officer put the gator back in the lake. "

Ah, yes! The Possum Police as veterinarian. Amazing how much wisdom strapping on a gun gives Ossifer Friendly, isn't it?

And in case anyone has any confidence in the utterances of even a real veterinarian who is paid by an agency, consider that we found actual capture reports which prove that the entire panther capture team could not correctly sex a captured and sedated panther.

That's right, they thought a male was a female! Neither the "Project Leader", one Deborah Jansen, nor the Vet, Dr. Blankenship, spotted the mistake. Neither did the rest of their 'capture team'. Ask the FWCC for copies of the capture records of Florida panthers number 124, 125, & 126; then you can see for yourself.

If AgencyPerson "professionals" can't correctly determine the gender of a captured and sedated cat, can we rely on other things they say?

[therut]

I would be mad as heck that he put the gator back in a POND.. One that had gone into a residental area and attackt someones dog. Maybe it will attack a child next time. Thing needed to be shot.

[Chena]

A socialist somewhere is saying, "Send GATORAIDE!"

[pepperdog]

"These are unfortunate, unrelated coincidences," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said.
-and-
"Frey thought she was going to jail, but ended up with a warning citation for hunting without a permit."

I pity anyone having to live in such a place and I'm not talking about the alligators. And did they leave the "t" out of Willies' last name?

[aberaussie]

I've not always followed this advice but in Louisiana we were taught to call Wildlife and Fisheries regarding any alligator incursions and do nothing to the animal or face possible fines.

I don't know...my son suggested that an alligator on our property would be a definite reason for invoking the "shoot, shovel and shut up" clause. Of course, we don't have too much to worry about being a good distance from any sizable body of water. It would be pretty shocking to find a gator in our yard.