Game Warden Drags, Kills Alligator(on a Houston suburb's residential street-on video)

Channel 2 Pseudo-News website ^ | 4/29/03 | Channel 2 sleazeball tabloid newsroom

[Diddle E. Squat]

Game Warden Drags, Kills Alligator Katy Residents Angry Over Gator's Death

POSTED: 8:47 a.m. CDT April 29, 2003 UPDATED: 11:04 a.m. CDT April 29, 2003

KATY, Texas -- Some Houston-area residents said they were upset Monday at the way a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department game warden got rid of 9-foot alligator in their neighborhood.

Residents told News2Houston that they called authorities after discovering the gator Thursday in the middle of a road in the 22000 block of Lodgestone Court in a Cinco Ranch neighborhood in Katy.

Witnesses recorded the gator's capture on videotape, in which the game warden was seen tying the animal to the back of his pickup, and then dragging it down the street while children and parents watched.

"It was very inhumane," resident Lara Mercadante said. "It was awful. It was absolutely unreal. If you weren't here you would not believe that it happened. We never thought that it was going to end up the way it did."

The game warden then took the alligator to the end of the street, and shot and killed it, authorities said.

TPWD officials said that although it is not typical practice for their officers to tow a live alligator behind a truck, they believe that the game warden followed what he felt was the most effective course of action.

However, officials said that as of a result of the incident, they are now reviewing their policies regarding nuisance alligator removal.

[green team 1999]

why they "have to" kill the gator?
is animal control or "animal terminator"?
and the govmnt. spend millions to set loose wolfs in the wild,but they could not send the gator to florida,alive?

[freeeee]

You shoot it where it lies

Therein lies the problem. I don't have a problem with it, but there are laws against that in populated areas. I don't think you'll be successful getting an exception.

Capturing it, to dispatch later in a private location, to suit the sensitivities of soccer moms, is a whole different business model.

I know, but that business model works just fine where I live. I think you might be underestimating the incredible desire many have to bag a gator just for fun. People around have to enter a lottery, and if they win, pay big bucks for a license to bag just one or two gators. If you offered to let them take a big gator completely out of season, there'd be a line around the corner and you could take your pick of who to employ.

sell the meat for dog food

No way! I pay more for a pound of gator tail at the store than I do for the best cuts of steak. I'm eatin it and washing it down with a cold beer. Dogs get leftovers if they sit nice.

[eddie willers]

You forgot spiteful ; )

And..."straight-razor toting woman".

[freeeee]

Where are all these "firms" you speak of?

From County trapper ends gator's quest to catch some rays:

"The state's 38 licensed nuisance gator trappers pulled some 7,200 nuisance gators from Florida waters in 2002, Regel said. The state-approved program saves lives, he said."

I couldn't find any in the yellow pages because they don't advertise to the general public.

[annyokie]

LOL! Gonna pick me a mess o' poke sallit and carry it home in my tote sack. BBL.

[Search4Truth]

You've got a point. There is no shortage of men who will jump at the chance to take a gator down, mano a mano. But why take the fun out of the sport by not allowing an occassional gator dragging? LOL.

[freeeee]

They take care of this stuff all the time in Florida...THEY DO NOT KILL THE GATORS AND DRAG THEM THROUGH THE STREETS.

I know. I've been telling them that through the whole thread. They don't believe me.

[green team 1999]

well,where was that baseball player from florida?,he kills animals for fun and uses baseballs instead of bullets

[Orange1998]

It was his job to remove the gator and that is what he did. Tie a gator to your bumber and then take the responsiblity of the gator getting loose and snatching some kid. The gator is consider "armed" and can't be trusted. Go ahead as you suggest, round up the kids,dogs and cat and go in the house. When the gator is missings in the neighborhood lets see how you sleep at night.

Maybe everyone wanted to see the warden gator wrestle and were disappointed. After all they had the video going.

[RightOnline]

"Another Texas chain-dragging death. We're gonna develop a reputation."

Too late. You're all savages. Says so right here.

[Dog Gone]

I think a deal can be reached.

Florida will agree not to lecture Texas on gator-dragging, and Texas won't lecture Florida on vote-counting.

[eddie willers]

My father made my mother cook a mess of the stuff when the song became popular.
Mean, nasty greens that only the poorest of folks eat.

I now know why.
(Though the purple berries are fun to play with, if you don't mind your mother beating the tar out of you when you got home for ruining your good shirt)

[freeeee]

Deal. LOL

[Bigg Red]

He should have shot it dead where he found it, and then dragged it off.

That's what I said, but someone else told me that then the parents would have been complaining about the warden using a gun in the presence of the children.

[annyokie]

We used to eat a mess o' greens almost every night in the summer. Mostly dandelions, though. I hated picking those suckers.

[ChefKeith]

Exactly how else did they think the 9 foot alligator was going to get to the end of the street? Oh yeah, just put a leash on it and walk it down there.

Well this is Texas... with a saddle of course :)

[Diddle E. Squat]

I dunno, cats seemed to be more threatened by Jackalopes. Ever seen one of these wander off the Katy prairies?

[Diddle E. Squat]

The babies are cute, though.

[Dog Gone]

At most Texas weddings, we tie jackalopes to the bumper of the groom's car. Less civilized states use tin cans.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Texas seems to have a problem:

No kidding - Trial nears in castration of town's beer-swilling goat mayor