Free Republic

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Florida man shot at an alligator to free his dog from its jaws. Tom Martino says he and his Jack Russell terrier Lizabeth were walking along the Hillsborough River in Tampa on Thursday when the alligator wrestled the 15-pound dog into the water. Martino started shooting into the water around the alligator to scare it into releasing the 9-year-old dog. He performed CPR on the dog until it coughed up water and started breathing again. Lizabeth is now being treated for alligator bits and lung injuries from being underwater. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission...

OKALOOSA ISLAND — A local family remains upset four days after giving their pet turtle to the Gulfarium and watching it get eaten by an alligator. Brenda Guthrie and her 8-year-old son Colton witnessed Tomalina’s death as the red-eared slider disappeared into the alligator’s jaws. When the two looked away from the sight, she said they could hear the crunching of the turtle’s shell. “He was jumping up and down screaming,” Guthrie said of her son’s reaction. “He was shouting, ‘Oh no alligator, let it go.’ ” Guthrie said that they decided to donate Tomalina after the turtle outgrew its...

All of southern West Virginia is buzzing about the big gator found at Upper Mud River Reservoir. The area manager for the Upper Mud River Wildlife Management Area killed the alligator, which measured more than five feet in length after finding the reptile on the banks of the popular fishing water. "We actually got two separate reports about it," said DNR Fisheries Biologist Zack Brown. "They were estimating it was about five feet and they were pretty accurate in their estimation." The reports indicated the gator was up on the bank and in the water. He was shot along the...

Well, it looks like the New Black Panther Party is finally back in the news once again. A couple of months ago, as many of you will remember, Attorney General Eric Holder dropped the voter intimidation case against the Philadelphia chapter after they were caught on video carrying batons at a polling station in ’08, which led to a firestorm of videos being released against the group. Now, a new video has surfaced showing King Samir saying that whites use black babies as ‘alligator bait’, while lambasting Fox News for the coverage after it was found the case was dropped....

Yes, the story's real. And there are pictures to prove it. And the cops were quite exasperated as to just what they were looking at, and where exactly it came from: “We're not sure if it's an alligator or a crocodile because we're not zoologists,” New York City Police Department Spokesman James Duffy told the New York Times. "No one knows where it came from, if it came from the sewer or not.” The urban legends of sewer-dwelling Big Apple reptiles are known worldwide - as are the myths of alligators coming up through the toilets. So it was little...

It may be finally be a death sentence for an elusive alligator that's been terrorizing a St. Pete neighborhood for close to two years now. "It's pretty scary, I got three little ones," says Dion Del Rio. She and her three sons have only been living in St. Pete for a few weeks now, but already they've heard the warnings about a 10-foot alligator lurking in the canals near their 11th St. home. Photo Gallery: Death sentence for St. Pete gator "There's been times I'll take them to the edge of the water just to see the hermit crabs," says...

June 29, 2010 12:59 AM JUAN CARLOS FANJUL BELLE GLADE-- Delanos Brown walked along the canal near his trailer park home looking for any sign of his beloved 1-year-old dog King. Around 7:30pm Monday, the 100 pound Pit Bull mix was drinking water along the canal when a 13-foot-long Alligator lunged at him, took him by the head, and pulled him under. "The gator just grabbed him and took him into a drainage pipe where he's been hiding ever since with my dog's body," he said. Residents who live in the trailer park located at the intersection of Hatcher Road...

A man bitten on the neck by an 11 1/2-foot alligator suffered cuts, bruises and a fractured jaw in the attack Tuesday at the Silver Springs attraction in Ocala. Peter Butt, 54, of High Springs was recovering Wednesday at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. A Shands spokeswoman said he was in good condition. Butt, an environmental consultant, was snorkeling in a canal to monitor the flow of water just after 5 p.m. Tuesday when the 500-pound-plus gator clamped down on his neck. He escaped the jaws and was able to swim to safety.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, - Workers at an Ohio company said a hunting dog spotted a 4-foot alligator near the office and alerted them to its presence. Jeff Tate, who owns Buckeye Caseworks in Columbus, said employee Jeff Colucy was letting his Weimaraner dog , which is trained to spot birds, relieve himself near the building when the canine spotted the reptile, the Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday. "My sales manager was taking his dog out to go to the bathroom, and he went to bring him back in and he was on point -- but not at a bird -- at a...

ORLANDO, Fla.- A Florida shopping mall had an unexpected, and unwelcome, visitor Wednesday when a 10-foot alligator took up residence on a nearby sidewalk, authorities said. Trappers were called to the Millenia Mall in Orlando, Fla., early in the morning to capture and remove the animal, WESH-TV, Orlando, reported. They said more of the reptiles are seen at this time of year when the alligators' mating season begins. "Most of the time when you have a big single alligator, it's usually a male adult searching for a girlfriend," gator trapper Terry Parlier said.

Photographer Says Gators Can't Tolerate Salt Water For LongA South Florida photographer recently captured a rare sight on camera in the Atlantic Ocean off Palm Beach. Laz Ruda photographed an American alligator in a reef about a mile offshore. Regularly found in freshwater lakes and rivers, alligators can tolerate salt water, but only for a short span of time. The salt glands on the American alligator are nonfunctional, unlike that of the American crocodile, according to Ruda's website, TheLivingSea.com. Ruda said he was 60 feet below the ocean's surface when he saw the alligator. "As I cruised along the sand,...

HOLLYWOOD , Fla., March 10 (UPI) -- Members of a U.S. organization dedicated to making alligator wrestling a legitimate sport say facing the large reptiles is not actually that scary. The Miami Herald said Tuesday to reinforce its point, Freestyle Alligator Wrestling Competitions is holding a competition this weekend at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, Fla. James Holt, who wrestled an alligator Tuesday to help promote the event, said the key to facing down one of the potentially deadly animals is mental acuteness. "The hardest part is making sure you're in the right frame of mind,"...

Police reports are often rich with jargon — phrases like "victim succumbed to his injuries," or "victim advised that defendant did knowingly and willingly enter his home without permission." Not so for a report filed by Tampa police Officer Terry Ashe, who wrote a colorful narrative about an alligator that attacked his city-owned Ford Taurus in Pasco County on Oct. 27. "As I was driving down the single lane, dirt road, adjacent to an old cemetery, I observed a large, menacing, dark object lying in the road obstructing my right of way," Ashe wrote. "With rain pouring down, mist and...

<p>Officials say an alligator bit off part of a golfer's arm as he leaned over to pick up his ball at a private South Carolina course.</p> <p>The man, who is in his 70s, was retrieving his ball from a pond when the 10-foot alligator bit him at Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort County. The gator pulled the golfer into the pond and ripped off his arm in the struggle. His golf partners were able to free him.</p>

A 77-year-old man lost his arm below the elbow Thursday when he was attacked by an alligator while playing golf on Fripp Island. The man, the father of a Fripp Island property owner, was playing the 11th hole of the island's Ocean Creek Golf Course at about 3 p.m. when the attack occurred. The victim was leaning down to pick up his ball when a 10-foot long alligator grabbed his arm, said Kate Hines, general manager of the Fripp Island Property Owners Association. Hines said the alligator dragged the man into a nearby pond and went into a series of...

AN alligator has bitten off part of a golfer's arm as he went to pick up his ball at a private course in the US, reports said today. The man, aged in his 70s, was retrieving his ball from a pond when the 3m alligator bit him at Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort County, South Carolina, the Associated Press reported. The report said the gator pulled the man in and ripped off his arm before his golf partners were able to free him.

At only five years old, Simon Hughes already knows how to use a gun. His early trainning paided off recently, when an 800-pound alligator took some bait at a nearby marsh. Soon, Simon was face-to-face with one big alligator. He quickly grabbed his gun..

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A 16-year-old girl has bagged a 10-foot alligator in a South Carolina swamp. In the middle of the night. With a crossbow. The State newspaper in Columbia reported that Cammie Colin won one of 1,000 lottery slots for the state's annual public alligator harvest. Hunters are required to use a crossbow or a harpoon.

A Louisiana man riding a bicycle with an alligator around his neck was arrested after he dropped the reptile on the ground and ran off as police approached. St. Charles Parish sheriff's deputies said they spotted Terron Ingram, 38, riding his bicycle with a 3-foot alligator around his neck Friday in Boutte. The man tossed the gator and jumped off his bicycle when he saw authorities approaching him to ask questions, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Thursday. Capt. Pat Yoes, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said deputies do not know where Ingram obtained the alligator. "We don't know what...

An 80-pound Dalmatian has died after being attacked by an alligator at Jacksonville's Hanna Park. A 10-foot alligator was trapped and killed several hours after Saturday's 10:30 a.m. attack. Authorities say they don't know for sure that the one trapped was responsible since they spotted more than one large alligator in the same lake. The dogs' owner, physician Charles Rust, was bitten on the hand by the wounded dog as he tried to wrestle it from the alligator. The alligator lunged and bit the dog's right leg off at the shoulder as it drank from the lake. Rust acknowledged he...