People 'going crazy' over [alligator] attacks

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

[JanetteS]

"Florida has seen a huge influx of people from the north, and many of the folks have little situational awareness..."

Joe, that's such a polite way of putting it!

[Vermonter]

I love fish and seafood..but somehow the desire to try gator has escaped me..

I'd have said the same thing, but did try it a few times. Pretty bland and just a little tough.

[Mase]

A gator climbs on this woman's property and she defends her dogs...and she gets a citation for "hunting without a license." Un-freepin-believable.

That's nothin. A couple of years back a guy in St. Petersburg shot a gator with a bow and arrow because it was threatening his kids in their own yard. The gator crawled back into the lake but his neighbor reported him. The police came and arrested him. I don't remember how the case was resolved but the fact that this guy was arrested is just unbelievable.

[LK44-40]

people from the north, and many of the folks have little situational awareness

You mean they are self-obsessed, loud, and think they are the center of the universe?? ;-)

[Truth is a Weapon]

what about the cats?

[pissant]

I like cats, as long as they keep the rodents away. Lazy cats...alligator chow.

[Moose4]

I saw a few decent-sized ones in some swampy areas and culverts, right in the middle of the built-up part of Kiawah Island, South Carolina. There's signs all over the island warning you to not feed them. To that, I simply say, "Durrrrrrr."

}:-)4

[saleman]

"These are unfortunate, unrelated coincidences," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said."

Let's see 17 deaths since '48, three in a week and these are unrelated? Somethings going on. Habitat, proximity to humans, etc. I would guess these gators have no fear of humans and they see them as food. But hey, what do I know.

[dawn53]

We live on a golf course. There are gators in lots of the water hazards and lakes.

I know of several dogs, large dogs, that have gone missing over the past years. They took a 10 ft 4 in gator out of the lake in front of us after it killed a dog (a boxer), and another neighbor lost a German Shepherd to a gator.

But if the gator doesn't kill an animal, they usually leave it alone. We had a smaller one (4-5 ft) come across our front lawn and find it's way through the gate and into our back yard. Animal Control wouldn't respond, they just said, give it time and it'll return to the lake...which it did.

Our dog goes on a run everyday with my husband, but she doesn't seem to want to go into the lakes...she prefers to swim in swimming pools, LOL.

[dukeman]

I grew up in SW Florida where I still live. When I was in high school in the 70s a pre-teen girl was snatched and killed by a gator while she was swimming in a roped-off freshwater swimming area in the local state park. A gator won't consume large prey all at once, but take it to sort of an underwater lair to "age." A rescue diver with the sheriff's department later told me that working that particular case to recover the body was about the worst thing he ever had to do.

Gators are nearly always no problem as long as you go your way and you let them go theirs. And never feed them like the visitors and new transplants seem to do.

[Always Independent]

How about build a moat for them along that az border and export some to the rio grande! "Sarc"

[mad puppy]

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

So this gal pounds this little 3 ft gator with 4 rounds and it LIVED? Unless she shot it with a pellet gun, that is rather unnerving.

[johnny7]

I never heard of gators coming on land to attack humans

They don't come on land till the last second of your life... the short, sudden burst of speed they can generate is what does you in.

[Centurion2000]

I see a movie deal...

First is was Samuel Jackson in "Snakes On A Plane

Now he'll be there with Alligators in the BackYard.

We got m###erf#$kin Alligators in the Backyard!!!!

Where's my Light Sabre? (oops, wrong movie)

[Semper Paratus]

And never feed them like the visitors and new transplants seem to do.

I was watching the show about the Florida Alligator snatchers who relocate gators where they don't belong and most of the trouble they have is from 'neighbors' who give them a hard time.

[jazusamo]

Catching a permit on fly in Florida.

Hah!, I couldn't figure out what your pic was about. Finally dawned on me to google permit fish, never heard them called that. Learned something new, thanks.

[Darkwolf377]

LOL!

I think that "Snakes" movie will become a cult classic for all the wrong reasons.

But he could use it to launch a whole new franchise.

"We got M*&^*(in ILLEGALS on the plane!" etc.

[Centurion2000]

I love fish and seafood..but somehow the desire to try gator has escaped me..

I'd have said the same thing, but did try it a few times. Pretty bland and just a little tough.

It's quite tasty with a little tabasco.

[RegulatorCountry]

"Apparently gators, range indicated above in yellow, inhabit most of the Deep South, and even North Carolina clear up to the VA border."

At the far reaches of their range, the gators are smaller and more sluggish. Not many candidates for man-eater in NC as a result.

[Thinkin' Gal]

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

Alligator amnesty. Not unlike a Pali prisoner release program.