Actually very few people get hurt by alligators. Probably more people
in CA get hurt by cougars, more people in Montana get hurt by bears
than people in the SE get hurt by gators - unless you count the college
football players that get chomped on by the FL Gators ;-).
They are like any wild animal - you leave them along, they leave you
alone. Problem comes when people feed them and they lose their fear of
humans. Of course if I were 14 feet and weighted about 1000 pounds I
wouldn't have much fear of humans.
When I moved here I lived in an area close to FL's largest state park
and the creek behind my house dumped into the river in the park. I used
to fish in the creek and ride my horse in the vacant land along the
creek. There was a 14 foot gator that lived in the creek. I saw him
many times from my canoe when I was fishing. In the winter he would
come up out of the creek and sun himself in the field I rode through. I
rode past him many times. He just laid there soaking up the rays. He
never hurt anyone, except maybe he ate a stray dog every once in
awhile.
One day someone built on the lot where he had been sunning himself for
probably a hundred years. Someone from the "city" decided they wanted
to move to the country. They were freaked out by this gator than "came
into their backyard." As far as I know he never did anything to the
people but they demanded animal control do something. You can't move a
gator that size, so they had to kill it.
Actually I found it a pretty sad day. That gator had been my riding
buddy and fishing buddy. We gave a nodding acceptance to one another
with me knowing that if I were in the water after dark, I'd probably
end up his dinner. It wasn't long after that I moved from there. Too
many "city folk" moving in. The same folks that couldn't coexist with
the gators also had a difficult time coexisting with the horse people.
Never mind they all had equestrian easements on the edges of their
property. Never mind they signed a document to that fact when they
closed on their property. They just didn't like it and they were going
to make our lives miserable.
That's when I moved on. But on occasions I think back about that big
old gator that taught me the ways of the gator and to respect them but
not fear them.
Truman
Barbara McCrary wrote:
I'd rather deal with an earthquake any
time! At least you never know when one is going to happen. Now
tornadoes are a given, every year, and I guess the same is true with
lovestruck bull alligators. If it weren't so potentially dangerous, it
would be funny!
Barbara
-- We imitate our masters only because we are not yet masters
ourselves,
and only
We
imitate our masters
only because we are not yet masters ourselves, and only
because
in doing so we
learn the truth about what cannot be imitated.
