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.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Lajitas (TX) takes wounding of its mayor seriously - (Mayor castrated in attack)

[Dog Gone]

As a personal friend of Clay Henry (well, I bought him a beer once), I think the man responsible for that should have been tied to a groom's car.

[Houmatt]

No kidding.

Oh, Mr. Game Warden.....

...this man wants a word with you.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Sorry for your loss. At least Henry, Clay Henry will be forever memorialized by that Subway tune.

[Grampa Dave]

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b4342ab447e.htm

Severed Arm Found, Alligator Suspected

News/Current Events News Keywords: ALLIGATOR ATTACK
Source: Reuters
Published: Tuesday July 3 12:30 PM ET Author: Reuters
Posted on 07/04/2001 09:22:03 PDT by b4its2late
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - A human arm that appeared to have been bitten by an alligator was found in a canal west of Fort Lauderdale, sheriff's deputies said on Monday.

The raggedly severed right arm was found on Sunday and was that of an adult male who apparently did not survive, said Broward County Sheriff's spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright.

``We're sure if they survived and they're missing a right arm, they would have come forward by now,'' she said. ''Detectives have no idea what happened with this body part, whether it was some sort of accident and the person was eaten by an alligator and this is what's left.''

Investigators took fingerprints from the hand.

Alligator attacks have become more common in Florida as its burgeoning human population pushes development farther into the reptiles' traditional swampy habitat.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has recorded 289 alligator attacks on humans, 11 of them fatal, since it began keeping records in 1948. Six people have been attacked by alligators in the last three months, two of them fatally.

---

This data is over two years. There have been many more attacks on humans with mutilations and deaths added to the toll.

[Grampa Dave]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/850826/posts

Woman loses arm in alligator attack
CNN ^ | Monday, February 24, 2003 Posted: 1:51 PM EST (1851 GMT)


Posted on 02/24/2003 1:56 PM PST by RoughDobermann


Animal shot; Arm recovered for attempt at reattachment


ENGLEWOOD, Florida (AP) -- A 70-year-old woman was in fair condition Monday after an alligator ripped off part of her arm as she trimmed brush outside her condo, officials said.

The 8-foot 3-inch alligator latched on to Helena Couto's arm just below the elbow Sunday and tried to drag her into a nearby pond, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She was saved by a resident who managed to pull her away, More said.

"A neighbor came to the rescue and had her by the legs," he said.

A deputy shot and killed the alligator.

Wildlife commission officials cut into the alligator and retrieved the arm, which was then flown to Tampa General Hospital where Couto was awaiting surgery to reattach it, Charlotte County spokesman Robert Carpenter said.

Hospital spokeswoman Ellen Fiss wouldn't say Monday whether the surgery was successful.

---

This alligator was not 9' long.

[Grampa Dave]

As our resident keeper of odd knowledge.

Do you have the up todate # of alligator attacks in Florida and number of deaths and injuries, handy some place.

[TexanToTheCore]

This officer did exactly the right thing. He removed the gator to an area that had soft ground and was away from the children and then dispatched him quickly with a relatively low power round, probably 9MM.

If I remember correctly, Cinco Ranch has mostly concrete roads and there was a high probability of a ricochet.

9 foot gators are extremely dangerous and tend not "menace or threaten" anything. If they take an interest in your child or pet or you....the are on you like lightning.

My compliments to the officer for a job well done.

This gator, BTW, had established that road as his sunning territory and would probably have begun hunting later in the evening. Maybe this woman's children.

These are not disney-like mechanical gators, but efficient predators.

Jeeez........

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

See the problem is, those of us who have lived here all our life just don't see it as a problem. One warden, one gator, one shot. I suggest you use all those private guys for ballot counting.

[Search4Truth]

"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."

I would think that the sound of a single gunshot, in a neighborhood, that currently had a man-eating predator loose in it, would be a welcomed sound. Would be in my neighborhood. But then, we don't have a lot of ingrate soccer moms here.

[TexanToTheCore]

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

You are right. We are the last of barbarians......

and proud of it.

TTTC

[buffyt]

We have had three gators in our neighborhood. Lake Jackson, on the Gulf coast, south of Houston. Lots of creeks and rivers and ponds and lakes around here. Lots of nutria and alligators around here, too. One was 11 1/2 ft. long, our neighbor got into BIG TROUBLE for shooting that gator as it attacked him and his dog.

[Shermy]

Not off hand. But as a fan of these stories I can tell you that the alligator attack stories will peak in May and June - the middle and end of mating season.

Here's two good ones from 2002:

Father Saves Daughter In Alligator Attack - Man Gouged Gator's Eye

Six-Foot Alligator Nabbed; Neighborhood Dog Missing

Shark bite stories were big two years ago, a bust last year. A few weeks ago the stories picked up in Florida, but petered out.

[dennisw]

I love alligators but they're vicious, lethal, pea brained reptiles. I would care if a mammal was drug behind a pick up but not some nuisance gator.

[buffyt]

But if that alligator had not been dealt with, it WOULD have dragge a child, a small adult, a cat, or a dog, off to KILL and EAT them. Alligators will try to drag you under water until you drown then they will eat you. I would call the game warden if I had another alligator in our neighborhood. If you do not live with alligators in your town, you do not know the danger. One night a neighbor received a call that there was an alligator on her front porch, a warning so she wouldn't step outside and be attacked. (1 1/2 block from my house!) I had three SMALL children at that time. Yes, alligators DO attack. Walk a mile in our alligator shoes before you criticize.

One day my husband was going to work and he saw the game wardens lassoing an alligator at the entrance to our neighborhood. I don't care what they do with them, when they are in MY neighborhood, so long as they get rid of them! I will be happy to send them to YOUR neighborhood!

[TexanToTheCore]

I agree, Texas is sometimes pretty wild. Last week our poodle was killed by a bobcat. Life can be very short and brutal for animals in the wild.

[BnBlFlag]

You're right! There are beaucoup gators to the south and east of Houston.

[Grampa Dave]

"There have been about 300 alligator attacks in Florida since the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission began keeping records in 1948. Officials said that 12 of the attacks were fatal."

This was the last paragraph in your first link.

[Search4Truth]

Most women are grateful when men remove these menaces from their neighborhood, and don't mind if the boys have a little fun in doing so. It's a guy thing.

[blastdad51]

I heard gators are good eatin. ( hold ma beer while ah shoot this thang!)