Apparently gators, range indicated above in yellow, inhabit most of the Deep South, and even North Carolina clear up to the VA border. But I think we've got most of them here in Florida.
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.
"These are unfortunate, unrelated coincidences," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said."
Obviously he is unaware of the recent gator fatwa against humans and their pets infringing on their scared territory. It's gator jihad I tell you.
It's that way in Florida too.
'Call 911 and die while waiting for help to come' approach.
My thoughts exactly, my mom has a beautiful alligator bag from the 60's. I want it.
I find it a little stringier than chicken. The first time I ate fried pieces of gator everything started out fine, but then I began thinking, "I've got lizard in my stomach." And then I started remembering the scene from Alien where the alien critter bursts out of the guy's abdomen, and then......never mind!
Until recently though I never heard of gators coming on land to attack humans, plenty of pets however go missing all the time.
"Frey thought she was going to jail, but ended up with a warning citation for hunting without a permit."
Oh please! Even the thought she should be questioned is ridiculous. Tying this in with "hunting" is ridiculous.
Absurdity reigns!
"The shots hit their mark -- two in the alligator's neck and two in its shoulder. The gator barely bled, she said."
Do we know the caliber?
Absolutely.
Until Sept. 11.
Then no more sharks, and no more Chandra Levy.
What does a guy do with a purse? LOL
I don't know the caliber. Would a 10-round clip most likely be a .22?
Nowhere in the article do they mention the caliber of the firearm . . . since they do mention a 10-round magazine, it could have been a Beretta 92 (9mm) or something even smaller, like a .380 auto or even a .22 rimfire. Some describe 9mm as ".45 ACP set on 'stun'" - or, as my dad says, "I hate like &*^*^% to shoot a man and then stand there and argue with him."
Suffice it to say that NONE of those are adequate for gator. If she had unloaded a .44 Mag or a .45 ACP into Mr. Suitcase, she might have gotten his attention a little more effectively.
"Even if it was eating your dog??
susie"
Well, I would just have to face the legal consequences.
Me too. Otherwise my dog would be really mad at me!
susie
See my post 51. We don't know, but it was probably just a virtue pistol -- although if she's a Marine you'd think she'd have something a little more substantial around the house . . .
Glad I read this far -- I was just about to say the same thing.
Apparently gators, range indicated above in yellow, inhabit most of the Deep South, and even North Carolina clear up to the VA border. But I think we've got most of them here in Florida.
In 2002 a man was killed by a shark as he dived into St. Pete Bay from his dock.
Eewww!!
I love fish and seafood..but somehow the desire to try gator has escaped me..
Until Sept. 11.
Then no more sharks, and no more Chandra Levy.
I remember that summer very well. It was Gary Condit 24/7 on the tv news, with breaks here and there for shark hysteria. We traveled from Florida to NYC on a family vacation in July and stood right in the shadows of the Twin Towers. Still gives me the creeps.
For some obvious reasons, I'll recuse myself from this thread.
But, on a parting note:
Hey, Hey, Gator's gotcher Granny!
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