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Trappers snatch alligator at park

The 9-foot, 9-inch alligator suspected of attacking and killing a dog named FiFi on Sunday was caught Tuesday.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published June 28, 2006

LARGO - It took just seconds for an alligator to snatch FiFi, a miniature Shih Tzu, at Ridgecrest Park on Sunday as she romped along the water's edge.

Two days later, it took trappers about 20 minutes to nab a 9-foot, 9-inch gator they think is the culprit.

A handful of neighbors and park employees watched Tuesday as Charles Carpenter and his partner and father, Ed, "fished" for the gator with heavy duty line and huge hooks.

They latched the gator under its tail and pulled it toward the eastern shore before lassoing its head and securing the rope to a nearby pine tree.

The gator spread its jaws, growled and thrashed its tail not far from the spot where FiFi was attacked. Carpenter threw a beach towel over it and sat on its back as his father wrapped tape around its snout.

"The complaint was for an 8-foot gator; we've got to put him back," joked Carpenter, a Pinellas County alligator agent.

Minutes later, the trappers wrestled the gator into a cage with other gators. This was their sixth catch of the day in Pinellas, they said. Others were wrangled in Palm Harbor and the Largo area.

"I hope he was the one," said FiFi's owner, Al Clark. "The only way they would know is if they open him up and find FiFi."

A formal examination of the reptile won't take place, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse. Instead, the gator will be killed and its meat and hide harvested, which is the usual protocol when gators attack pets, he said.

Morse said he was "fairly certain this is the gator" that attacked the dog because he didn't know of any alligators that large or bold in the lake. Aggressive alligators are easier to trap, he said.

Robert Redding, a park maintenance worker who watched the capture, saw the gator when it attacked.

"Yeah, that's the one. He's the big one," Redding said.

Residents who live near the park said alligators are common in the park and adjoining waters.

Marcus Thomas, who watched the trapping with a group of his friends, said the gator should be freed.

"I think they should have put him back," Thomas, 26, said. "Everybody knows you don't walk dogs by the water."

[Last modified June 28, 2006, 06:58:19]