Wandering 10-foot Alligator Wanders on State Road 7 in Florida

Tweet

A fellow MyLotter posted an "Aril Fools" joke post how she found an alligator in her home...in her basement...this story isn't an April Fools joke though...on a busy highway in Florida during the rush hour a 10-foot alligator was meandering along the highway in Florida. There's a video of Animal Control subduing it and putting it in a truck. The thing is...the gator isn't going to be released back into the wild..according to "regulations" any gator more than 5 feet long has to be destroyed...killed because it can't be transported..well like duh? Here's the article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sfl-401gatornabbed,0,2819331.story NORTH LAUDERDALE - Construction worker Jimmy Lloyd Sewell knew it was April Fool's Day, but the scaly alligator he saw walking beneath the turnpike overpass early Tuesday was no joke. "That's a crazy thing," the 40-year-old carpenter said about seeing the 10-foot-long beast strolling leisurely along the shoulder of busy State Road 7 as motorists gawked. While a co-worker called 911, Sewell herded kids on bikes away from the 400-pound gator as it headed south away from the overpass. Broward sheriff's deputies arrived about 7:30 a.m. and used their patrol cars to keep the reptile from escaping. Two officers from Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission snared the critter a short time later with a rope. The gator was turned over to a trapper and taken to a processing plant, because he was too big to safely release. The huge reptile's presence near State Road 7 snarled traffic for more than an hour while drawing clusters of curiosity-seekers and media. "It was going south, then it spun around and looked east," said Sewell,who works for Jim Rock Construction. "Everybody was staring." Mark Warsaw, a sheriff's deputy for six years, got some unusual on-the-job training. Warsaw, 35, helped the wildlife officers restrain the gator with a rope and later held down its taped snout as it lay in the grass. "It was the first [gator] I ever wrestled with," Warsaw said, grinning. "He was strong. Our concern was if the gator got out in the road, someone might run over him and cause an accident." Deputies said they kept the gator calm by herding him into the light where he could stay warm. "It wasn't frightening, but I made sure I had somewhere to go if he started to run," Warsaw said. Trapper Kevin Garvey said the hefty gator would be destroyed because it was too big to release. Gators under 5 feet are usually relocated in the wild, he said. Larger alligators "tend to find their way back and cause problems again," Garvey said. Miguel Silva watched the ordeal unfold with relish. "Dangerous, exciting," said the former New Yorker who had never seen a real gator up close and personal. "I'm just glad no one got hurt. It's amazing." What ticks me off no end...They were able to put the gator in the truck..so would it kill THEM to take it into the wild again where they won't cause a further problem...crap, why is it mankind wants to kill everything according to "rules and regulations"?? Gee...what if animals decided to band together and kill us according to THEIR rules and regulations? grrrrrrr