Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
A woman walking her dog is pulled to the ground by an alligator. She received a 6-inch thigh wound.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2001
JACKSONVILLE -- A woman walking with her dog in a park on Big Talbot Island was attacked by an 8-foot-long alligator but managed to get away with minor wounds after it pulled her to the ground.
Tammy Woehle, 22, said she didn't hear the alligator creeping up to her as she stood on a sandy beach, away from high grasses and the water's edge.
Although it was still light out, she said she didn't see it coming as she waited for her dog, Lady, to return.
The alligator grabbed her left leg, pulling her to the ground.
"Once he got me on the ground, he let go," she said of the Friday attack. "I was on my back on the ground. I was able to scoot away."
Then she ran to safety.
"It was really scary, she said. "I never knew that something like this could happen."
At Memorial Hospital Jacksonville, nurses and doctors told Woehle the alligator tore some of the muscle away when it grabbed her thigh, leaving a wound 6 inches long.
"They said I was really lucky," Woehle said.
Hospital officials said Sunday she was released after treatment.
Before the Friday attack, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had documented seven other alligator attacks in the state in 2001, slightly below average.
Alligators have killed 11 people in Florida since 1948, wildlife officials say.
The latest deadly attack came June 23, when a 2-year-old girl wandered from her Winter Haven back yard to a nearby lake and was killed by a 6 1/2-foot gator.
In May, the chewed body of a 70-year-old man was found floating in a Venice pond with the 8-foot alligator that killed him circling nearby.