Posted on 08/20/2016 10:16:26 AM PDT by rktman
BUSHNELL (FOX 13) - A Sumter County man says he is unfairly being charged with violating the state's alligator poaching law after he tried to protect his livestock.
Reginald Blanton of Bushnell said an alligator was in the field with his horses on the night of June 21. His son, Jack Hildreth, tried to scare it away, but that didn't work. So Blanton fired a shot at it, trying to get it to leave.
But the state attorney in Sumter County said Blanton went too far.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox13news.com ...
Closer to Orlando. I used to run daily routes from ORL to Bushnell, Leesburg, Clermont.
WTF? Like we don’t have enough ‘gators in Florida? Over 3,000 in the lake behind our house (seriously).
Yup.
Gotta be more to the story. Cops don’t file charges like this normally. Then again, game wardens might.
Don’t doubt it. We had a small lake a block over from our house and when mating season showed up, the bulls would raise the hair on the back of your neck. Then there was the federal reserve at KSC and there were thousands of them out there.
The Florida National Cemetery is in Bushnell. Go through that area several times a month.
How did anyone find out about the dead gator? This guy obviously lives “out” somewhere. There was a hospital visit that had to be explained but no one had to admit to the shooting of the gator.
My guess is someone went bragging. Law enforcement can and does overlook many things when they are not public. My local sheriff used to tell me and my friends “if you don’t draw attention to yourself how would I notice?”.
Was that gator really going to take down a horse? I smell a horse pile.
“S S and S”
Agreed. Also, firearms are a standoff weapon. If you’re going to get within 8 feet of the gator, you might as well bring a baseball bat (foolish, but so is a gun at that range). If you’ve got a firearm (I suspect low-caliber given the minimal damage from the shots), stand back far enough to be safe.
Everyone in Florida knows it is against the law to kill a gator. Who blabbed about it?
This is crazy. The man got injured and was trying to protect his livestock, yet gets arrested.
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