Please, I am not being argumentative, but would it not depend on the circumstances of the child being ate. I love dogs and children more than alligators, but, I am not ready to wipe out the alligator population for the mistakes made by humans. I fear that unwarranted fear could overreact.

Lou

No, Alligators in close contact with humans is not good. Before long they lose their fear of humans and become a hazard to the pets and young children of humans.

Do you realize what you are saying? You think we should tolerate gators in our ponds at the risk of our grandchildren? There are 1.3 MILLION gators in Florida. They don't need to be in close proximity with us. And, it is impossible to clear all of the gators from our ponds and keep them out. We are not "wiping out the species."

If you tolerate gators in close proximity to humans too long, guess who's coming to dinner:

You are most likely correct Carl. You have posted with logic beyond belief on TOTV. I tend to jump to the defense of nature and probably to much so. I personally like to see the alligators in ponds, and have walked our blind poodle around these ponds for years without incident. I am very aware of Busters distance from the water and stay between him and danger. That said, I have only been here for three years, so if the experts say get rid of all gaters, I will go with that division.

NO! It would not depend upon the circumstances of the child being eaten. Lieber Gott in Himmel! Do you hear what you are saying?

The range of the alligator is through the Southeastern United States from the Northern tip of North Carolina to the Southern tip of Texas, and the population of gators in this area is FIVE MILLION.

No one is talking about "wiping out the alligator population" by trying to prevent interaction between alligators and humans in The Villages.

Sigh.............

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Be reassured that there will always be gators in lakes and ponds in The Villages. People continue to break the law and feed them.

Alas...............

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OK, I truly respect your posts, and I am coming on board. Just because I have not had any negative interaction with a gater, does not mean it is not happening. If culling is needed for human safety, then so be it.

Thanks for that info Steve. I just read your response. That's true that some people have no sense of their surroundings or some have little common sense.

Carl,
I think the issue here is that there had apparently been no human interaction with the gators that were being trapped and, as you pointed out, you will never erradicate gators from Florida ponds.

A sighting of an alligator prompted someone to over react. Common sense should prevail. If an alligator is leaving its habitat to seek out human contact, then that gator should be trapped and harvested or moved.

It is my understanding that it is standard operating procedure in The Villages to tolerate non-aggressive gators until they grow to reach a certain size. They are often then relocated to Lake Sumter as was one that wandered into Bonita a few months ago.

That being said, I am in favor of allowing gators to eat humans who do not pick up dog poo.:1rotfl:

The reason that alligators lose their fear is that people FEED them! That is a stupid thing and an illegal thing to do!! The alligator associates people with being fed and bad outcomes occur.

YES, we should tolerate alligators in our ponds. Do not let your dogs go by ponds. Do not let grandkids feed alligators at ponds or at Lake Sumter Landing. Educate your grandkids about conservation as well as safety.

That photo is a faked one. Alligators do not get up on their back legs by themself. Where did you find it?

Sorry Carl, my post was misleading. I meant in this specific Mira Mesa incident, not in general. It was reported the trappers were under contract to Ff&WC. (And apparently that gator is now deceased).

I do agree that nuisance gators should be eliminated.

Guess who's coming to dinner.
 

Glad to hear it. Now convince the people in Hilton Head.

'Darling, there's an alligator at the door'
By BARRY WIGMORE, Daily Mail

Last updated at 22:19 13 June 2006


Robert Loretta and his wife Roslyn had just sat down to dinner of a nice barbecued teryaki chicken when the knock came at the front door.

'Guess who's coming to dinner?' Mrs Loretta joked as she got up to answer the door.

The hammering grew louder, so luckily she looked out of the peep-hole, as she often does, before opening up - and saw a 6ft alligator scrambling up the wall as though it was trying to ring the bell.

The alligator caused quite a commotion when it went calling just before sunset in sleepy Penny Creek Drive.

Mr and Mrs Loretta first noticed it in the lake behind their house in Sun City, a holiday resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

They were barbecueing on the back porch as it sunned itself on the bank of the lake, mouth wide-open, eyes staring at the chicken as it sniffed the succulent aroma.

'It was smelling the food, I guess,' Mrs Loretta told her local newspaper, the Island Packet. The Lorettas took their dinner indoors to eat, which was a lucky decision as it turned out.

They next noticed the alligator in a flanking move as it crept along the side of their house.

It went into the road, crossed the street, and settled down by a neighbour's mailbox as residents crept out to take a peek at the greedy visitor.

But the alligator became restless as the crowd grew and people started taking pictures. It ran back across the street - straight into the Lorettas' garage.

By now growing angry, it came out again and scurried round to the front door where, once more facing a dead-end, it began hammering on the woodwork.

Mrs Loretta said: 'When I looked out its left front claw was right by the bell push and it looked just as though it was trying to ring the doorbell.'

Neighbour Richard Holinski, who was taking photos with a long lens from about 10 yards away, said: 'By this time he looked pretty mad. If he had turned around, I'd be gone in a hurry.'

Eventually the alligator did turn round. It raced to the side of the house, sniffed the friendly smell of water from the familiar lagoon behind the house, and dived in.

Mr Holinski said: 'It took off like a rocket.' By the time guards from a local security company arrived the only thing left was some dirt and a few scales that came off the creature's rough skin as it hammered on the door.

Wildlife biologist Dean Harrigal of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said: `You get oddball behaviour from alligators at this time of year.

`There's been little rain for months and the lakes are real low, so they're on the move a lot looking for deeper water.

'Certainly the smell of teryaki chicken had something to do with this. Alligators have special organs in their snouts that give them a great sense of smell.'

Residents in the southern US where alligators are prevalent are warned to be especially alert for them at this time of year - and never to feed them because it makes them lose their natural fear of humans. There have been a number of attacks in recent weeks.

Mrs Loretta said: 'It won't stop us barbecueing, but we'll certainly be extra careful in future.

'Darling, there's an alligator at the door' | Mail Online

Agility.
 

And, then there's this from the Tampa (Florida) Tribune:

PASCO TRIBUNE

Turning The Scales On Intruder GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune Staff
Published: May 26, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - An alligator that got itself caught between two houses in the Meadow Pointe community Thursday evening had been trapped, killed and ready to be made into 'alligator nuggets' by Friday morning, a local trapper said.

Mickey Fagan of M and D Gator Products of Dade City said he caught the gator - which tried to climb the side of a house in the Morningside neighborhood - between 7 and 7:30 p.m.

'We just put a rope on him and pulled him out,' Fagan said, adding that neighbors seemed 'glad to see someone who knew what they were doing.

'If you get someone who doesn't know what they're doing it can take three hours and they tear up all the flowers,' he said. 'We do everything as humane as we can.'

Pasco County sheriff's Deputy Todd Koenig said he was called to Morningmist Drive about 6:15 p.m. Thursday. Using a metal baton that he tapped on the ground, Koenig tried to get the alligator to head toward a nearby pond.

Instead, the gator crawled back and forth between two houses, occasionally trying to climb the side of one.

Homeowner Rick Skinner, whose fence the gator tried to scale, said he hoped the gator could be lured to water, but it was not to be.

As Fagan put it Friday: 'He gets made into alligator nuggets.'

'I sell the meat and hides,' he said. 'I sell all over the world, Canada, Hong Kong, all over the United States. We process 2,000 to 2,500 gators per year. There's only a select few slaughterhouses in the state. I have about nine different trappers who bring me their gators.'

FOR HELP

If you have questions or concerns about alligators in your area, call the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission's alligator hot line at 1-866-392-4286.

Turning The Scales On Intruder

(I suspect the photo below was photoshopped after the fact to illustrate the story.)

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The Pythons are moving up this way.
They will take care of the smaller gators::shocked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVRh...eature=related

Eradication
 

They are a foreign, invasive species.

I cannot understand why Florida has not undertaken an all-out eradication program for them.


As Stonewall Jackson said after the Battle of Fredricksburg, "Kill them. Kill them all." (Different context; he didn't mean snakes.)

I would fear them more than the gaters.