An alligator killed an 85-year-old woman who was walking her dog in Florida

An 85-year-old woman walking her dog in the St. Lucie County community of Spanish Lakes Fairways, Florida (about twenty minutes north of downtown West Palm Beach) was killed in an alligator gun attack, as reported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC).

The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, lived in an elderly community where there are canals and lakes. Every day, the victim went out to walk his dog. Unfortunately on that fateful day an alligator appeared and came out of the canal next to the one the lady was walking with her dog and tried to eat the animal. According to neighbors, the woman tried to save her dog, but then it was she who was attacked by the reptile.

“Caimans are very common here. We have a lot of respect for them because we know they are dangerous, but we never imagined that such a thing could happen,” Lidya Sorenson, a neighbor of the victim, told local media.

St. Lucia County Sheriff Ken Mascara said the alligator, which was captured by a trapper dispatched by the FWC, was nearly 11 feet (3.3 meters) long. Six officers had to participate in the rescue until they managed to put the reptile in a truck and get it out of the neighborhood.

The dog survived the attack, but its owner died of his injuries.

Some videos broadcast on the networks show the complex operation that the agents had to carry out to ensure that no other neighbor suffered from the appearance of the alligator in the neighborhood.

Although alligator attacks are rare, there have been an average of eight unprovoked bites per year in Florida over the past decade that required medical attention, according to the FWC. From 1948 to 2021, there have been 442 unprovoked bites in Florida, resulting in 26 deaths.

Alligators can be found in virtually all of Florida’s 67 counties, although they are considered an endangered species and therefore protected.

(With information from EFE)