Baby Killer!
The alligator was removed from the Endangered Species list in 1987 and is actually hunted in Louisiana. It should be a simple matter to determine if this is an alligator or a camian, native to southern Mexico and South America. (Go to Wikipedia) It sounds to me like they know it is an alligator and they know it is no longer on the endangered species list, yet they want to get him for killing it.
Mr. Belle was an idiot. If he gets a fine or whatever, he deserves it, just for stupidity. Official efforts were being undertaken to trap this croc/alligator. Mr. Belle gets out in his boat, deliberately hooks the thing, then supposedly calls for help for 30 minutes before deciding to club it 15 times with an oar so he can return to shore (all he had to do was cut the line). Then, even dumber, he gets the news media out to hear the tale of the clubbing in quite some detail accompanied with 'film at 11' pictures of a very small, very dead croc/alligator. Mr. Belle has P.O.'d everyone on every side of this issue except Mr. Baugh, a locally noted and expensive defense attorney who I suspect will end up with the last $laugh$.
I don't recall the outcome, but the poor woman was harassed by the government for some time.
These Animal First people gripe the hell out of me.
Traditionally, the northernmost limit of natural alligator habitat is the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. It's only a short leap of faith to believe that, with the warmer winters we've had lately, it's possible that the alligator may have migrated northward. It could be yet another side-effect of global warming.
So therefore...we're all going to be eaten by alligators, and it's Bush's fault!
(Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)