Posted on 05/16/2006 12:06:05 PM PDT by dukeman
Manatee woman shoots gator as fatal assaults leave state shook up
EAST MANATEE -- An unprecedented surge in fatal alligator attacks has created a stir among Floridians, including a local woman who used a handgun to fend off a gator.
When a 3-foot alligator came onto Candy Frey's lanai Saturday and attacked her golden retriever, the East Manatee woman grabbed her pistol.
Frey and her daughter managed to push the alligator through a dog-door on their lanai, then Frey shot the reptile four times.
"I was running on so much adrenaline," recalled Frey, 48, a former U.S. Marine aviation technician who has lived in the Panther Ridge subdivision for four years. "I just freaked out and shot him -- boom, boom, boom, boom."
Frey said she was thinking about recent gator attacks when she got her gun.
"People are shook up," said Todd Hardwick, a trapper who captured a 9-foot, 4-inch alligator Monday in a residential lake north of Miami. "It's like the citizens of Florida have declared war on alligators. People are really going crazy."
Last week, a 74-year-old woman in Punta Gorda fended off an alligator with a garden hose after it bit her ankle. The alligator scurried off.
In the latest fatal cases, one victim was a jogger whose body was found in a Broward County canal; one was snorkeling in a recreation area near Lake George, in the central part of the state; another was found in a canal about 20 miles north of St. Petersburg. All three were women.
"These are unfortunate, unrelated coincidences," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said.
Although such a concentration of deaths -- all in a week's time -- had never been recorded in Florida, wildlife officials say there is no pattern or common element between them.
Only 17 deaths had been recorded since 1948 before the most recent fatal attacks, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Government researchers estimate there are between 1 million and 2 million alligators in Florida, but there have only been 351 recorded attacks on humans in the past 58 years.
Those gators that are 6-foot or larger are most likely to attack a person; alligators can reach 14 feet in length and weigh 1,000 pounds.
"We still caution everyone: Pay attention to your surroundings. Pay attention to what's in the water. Alligators are predators and wild animals that should be treated with respect," Puz said.
The three fatal attacks have come during the peak of alligator mating season, when the animals are moving around in search of mates.
In populous south and southwest Florida, lack of rainfall has dried up some shallow wetlands, forcing more alligators to find new homes. And rising spring temperatures make the cold-blooded creatures more active in their search for food.
Alligator encounters with humans also could increase as more and more natural habitat is lost to development. "We are building more and more into wild territories," Puz said.
Frey said Monday she's seen an alligator once before in the 15-acre lake behind her home in Panther Ridge.
A metal fence with bars surrounds her property. She said she thought the fence's height and metal bars would be alligator-proof.
But at about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Frey was in the front of her house when she heard her two golden retrievers, Sammy and Annie, frantically barking.
"The dogs were going nuts," she said.
Sammy was bleeding from his head when Frey walked onto her lanai.
"I have to take this guy out," Frey recalled thinking. "You can't wait to see how long it's going to sit there."
She loaded a 10-round magazine into her pistol and marched back outside. Frey had tried flipping the gator away with a shovel but the reptile kept lunging at her.
Gripping the gun with two hands, Frey squeezed the trigger four times. The shots hit their mark -- two in the alligator's neck and two in its shoulder.
The gator barely bled, she said.
A neighbor called 911 and a Manatee County sheriff's deputy responded to Frey's home in 8100 block of Panther Ridge Trail.
The state sent a wildlife officer to investigate.
Frey said the gunshot wounds appeared to self-heal and the wildlife officer put the gator back in the lake.
The officer questioned Frey about the shooting.
Frey thought she was going to jail, but ended up with a warning citation for hunting without a permit.
Yep. Since they won the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship it's been like that.
You think they might be Alien Alligators?
I thought Ripley killed them off?
Huh???
Yikes, I could have sworn I typed taken not take. I really do know proper grammar! sheesh....
susie
The Predators will come down in search of Aliens, and then the alligators show up, and then...
I'm a little surprised that four hits didn't appear to phase the gator too much.
My dream is to own a alligator farm. And feed them poodles and other small dogs.
Even if it was eating your dog??
susie
Catching a permit on fly in Florida.
Frey said the gunshot wounds appeared to self-heal and the wildlife officer put the gator back in the lake.
We need a "Guest Gator" program now.
Believ it or not, there is a real Manatee Woman...
http://www.manateewoman.com
Probably not what you expected, though.
LOL! Too close. Looks much better in a bun with mustard.
He was way too slippery to keep on the bun! ;)
susie
If I recall correctly, wasn't there an uptick in the reports of shark attacks just prior to 9/11?
I just love the tone of this article - the alligator's attacking this woman's dogs, lunging at her, and the "journalist" makes it sound like she and others in this situation are the one who are hysterically overreacting! I guess now we're supposed to just sit back and do nothing while aggressive gators take our dogs, take our kids or tear us to pieces.
I expected nothing more from the SHT, of course.
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!
"Last time we had such animal vs man hysteria (omigod! sharks!) was early September, 2001..."
I was just thinking that myself. Most thought it was media generated hysteria, but some thought it was sunspot activity, whether that was credible or not. I recall a factoid about revolutions coinciding with solar max, with someone posting the 11 year cycle back to 1066 (Norman Invasion). It was interesting, because there were more than a few years of upheaval coinciding with the cycle.
Frey said the gunshot wounds appeared to self-heal and the wildlife officer put the gator back in the lake.
The officer questioned Frey about the shooting.
Frey thought she was going to jail, but ended up with a warning citation for hunting without a permit.
The funny part is that in Florida if a person came onto her property, attacked her dog, and she shot him, there would be no citation.
Jetskiing with the gators is fun, my rules are
1. Don't fall off
2. Don't fall off
3. If the gator is longer than my jetski-(11'6") stay 50ft away.
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