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RICHARD RAEKEFish and wildlife officials knew of the reptile that killed a puppy, but attempts to capture it were unsuccessful.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Don't tell Bill Baird that you know what it's like to have your dog killed.
"Not till you go pick her up in the boat and take her home," he said. When he found Krissy on Tuesday evening, she was bobbing in the lake behind his Veterans Village home. A 10-foot alligator had taken her chest, neck and one leg.
Baird had picked up Krissy, a 9-month-old Labrador retriever mix, from the dog pound in Pinellas County when she was only 12 weeks old.
"I've been crying since 5 o'clock yesterday," he said Wednesday night.
Neighbors had complained about the alligator to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in early May. They worried about their children and their pets.
"I knew that alligator was going to eat that dog," said Bernie Capasso, who lives across the lake from Baird. Several times, Capasso said, the alligator crawled up behind his home. And twice, he said, it snatched up a duck.
When the gator muscled onto land, which was common, the young dog would bark at it, he said.
Capasso, worried about the alligator attacking a child or a pet, filed a complaint with fish and wildlife officials May 3.
"I have guns and stuff, but I was told I couldn't shoot it," Capasso said.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued a permit to alligator trapper Mickey Fagan, but attempts at hooking the gator proved unsuccessful. It would eat the bait of chicken and mystery meat but leave the hook.
"Catching alligators is not an exact science," fish and wildlife spokesman Gary Morse said Wednesday. "And an alligator that size didn't get that big by being stupid."
The incident demonstrates the need for Floridians living on lakes to build fences to protect young children and pets, Morse said. If an aggressive alligator is spotted, Morse said residents should call the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's hotline at 1-888-404-3922 any time.
Fish and wildlife officials planned a gator hunt in the small lake for Wednesday night. Capasso said he relished the thought of eating some fresh alligator steaks. But Baird had his own plans for the reptile if it was brought ashore alive.
"So help me God, I'm going to have a knife in my hand," he said. "And if I can get close to it, it's going to be a dead alligator."