Fur confirms trapper got the right gator

Fur in the animal's stomach proves it ate a Dalmatian last month, he says.

By WILMA NORTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

LARGO -- The 9-foot-5-inch alligator pulled from Lake Seminole last week was the one that killed a Dalmatian puppy last month as it chased ducks in the lake.

Trapper Joe Borelli Jr. said Tuesday that evidence in the alligator's stomach, including spotted fur, confirmed that the alligator he caught was the culprit.

The alligator, estimated to weigh 250 to 300 pounds, was snared in a trap July 5 near the Sailwinds apartments.

The dog, a 7-month-old named Sandi, lived in the apartment complex on the western shore of Lake Seminole near 122nd Avenue N. The 46-pound dog escaped from its apartment and romped into the lake as its owners, Cassandra Callaway, 15, Madison Callaway, 7, and Rebecca Callaway, 4, tried to call it back.

Two large alligators swam toward the dog, and one of them killed it and dragged it away.

"We're glad to know they got it," Joseph Callaway, the girls' father, said Tuesday. The dog was a Christmas present for Rebecca.

The girls, Callaway said, "are doing all right, but they're missing their dog."

The family recently moved to the Largo-Seminole area from Virginia.

The state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hires Borelli to trap alligators in Pinellas that appear to be a threat to people or pets.

The alligators are then killed for their meat and hide.

Borelli put a snare over a culvert on Betty Jean Johnson's lakefront property, adjacent to the apartment complex, soon after the dog attack. If a big alligator swam into the culvert, a noose would catch it and hold it on a rope.

The first one Borelli caught, about two weeks ago, was 81/2 feet long. But its stomach contained no evidence of the puppy.

Last Wednesday morning, the snare caught the 9-foot-5-inch alligator.

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