I saw this video. (Note it stops before the actual attack begins.)
I don’t know how long this woman lived in Florida, but if she is 85, she should have figured out long before now that you don’t walk anywhere near the water’s edge, particularly with a dog.
BTW, the dog actually survived.
If there is a body of fresh water in Florida, there will be at least one alligator occupying it. And to them, a dog is a delicious snack.
When the dog moved back, the alligator decided if I can’t get him, I will take down the main course instead. He dragged the woman into the water and I am sure a few death rolls ensued, though the authorities have not yet gone into the specifics of the state of the corpse.
Whether you are old or young, walking your dog that close to the water in Florida is just ■■■■■■■ stupid. Literally asking for it.
I don’t think they are doing it to punish the gator i.e. “bad gator! you get the death penalty”. They fear it’s developed a taste for humans and will try to attack again.
I am saying this because our guide told us a similar story (although much less tragic) that happened in Denali park when a scared hiker threw a backpack at a grizzly bear cub. The cub got into the backpack and ate all the snacks and it was decided that it needs to be euthanized - because it may be attracted to humans as a source of food in the future.
That assumes that the woman was a resident, not a visitor.
The gator threat is not present in most of the US. Visitors from Europe, Canada, China, etc. may be clueless.
My view is that safety of humans comes first. Gators of a dangerous size should be trapped or hunted to remove them from residential or urban areas where they are a significant hazard.
Weird thing about China. It’s the only other country in the world that has a native Alligator species. Since there are only two. The American Alligator and the Chinese Alligator.
That said the Chinese Alligator is two steps away from being extinct. There’s only a few hundred left in China. If that many.
The Chinese Alligator is also WAY smaller than the American Alligator. They rarely get over five and a half feet long. And they’re a lot less bulky, too. Our Gators are basically on steroids compared to the Chinese Alligator.
We don’t have nearly as many Alligators as Florida, but they are still a fairly common sight around my neck of the woods in the backwaters of the local rivers. About fifteen miles north of where I live is a swamp; highway cuts right the middle of it. I’ve watched some big ass gators cross the highway before.
Beautiful reptiles. But they are a damn nuisance and they are extremely dangerous. They sure do taste good though.
Yes, I was surprised to see magnolia trees when I visited China. The climate and wildlife of places like Shanghai are similar to that of the southeastern US.
Avoiding hazards may be obvious for locals, but visitors may have no idea of the problem. I heard of a case of someone returning to Germany with a mysterious skin disease that covered much of his body that baffled doctors. It turned out he had been to the US and had a bad case of poison ivy, which does not grow in Europe.
Not really necessary. People need to simply need to take more care. For as many alligators that exist in Florida, there are relatively few attacks. And most of them are the result of careless behavior, like walking dogs near a body of water or swimming in unmonitored areas.
And if you remove a large alligator from a lake, another large alligator will simply come in and takes its place.
Now alligators who have become habituated to humans because of being fed by some moron unfortunately need to be removed or destroyed.
But it would be unproductive to move or cull alligators simply because of their size.
