Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i saw the Dirty Jobs episode of the alligator farm a few times. they showed alot about the job EXCEPT how they kill the alligators. does anyone know exactly how that part is done? they even showed how they use a power washer to get the remaining flesh off the skins but they didn't tell us how they killed them.

Most La. farmers shoot them with a 22 caliber gun and most Fl. farmers I know kill them by severing the spinal cord with a hatchet or knife. Personally I hate to see them killed at all even though farming has benefited the wild populations. I'm not against it I just like them too much to kill them.....TC

I can't think of the name of it, but I wonder why they don't use the same type of gun they use for cattle that penetrates the skull. Is it because they salvage the skulls for retail markets?

Semi-related, but I found it interesting, so I'll share. It is referred to as a bolt pistol.

I can't speak for cattle, but my brother works in the swine industry for one of the very largest producers in the US, and he just informed me that they are switching over to Co2, due to injuries caused from spasming after using the bolt pistol, and because of cleanup.

Interesting, thanks.

I do love alligators and hate to think of mass slaughter. I had to do some work in a meat packing plant as part of my Animal Science work at UF and remembered them putting the cattle down, but that was YEARS ago (never mind how many, LOL!). Somehow the idea of people shooting guns seem like an OSHA nightmare! I support the right to bear arms, but it just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

Believe it or not most La. Alligator Farmers are afraid of them. When I bought the first albinos in the early 1990's I waded into the grow out with 6-7' alligators and they began to scream that I'd be attacked. At one farm[the oldest in La.] I walked in among his very large breeders and when the bulls raised up and hissed I'd slap them on the nose with my hand and they went crazy begging me to come out before I was torn apart. Thats why they shoot them because they're afraid to catch them. They shoot them right in the concrete grow outs. I'd be terrified of being shot by a richocheting bullet not by a rather small gator. I don't know if all La. Farmers do that but the 2 I visited did.....TC

What size do most gator farms process the animals at? I know most industrial style "normal" livestock farms basically have it down to a science when to slaughter, and it generally seems to be just before growth starts to slow down in relation to food consumed, but I'm curious how it works for alligators.

showed that alligator eggs hatched at 90 degrees and raising the neonates at 90 degrees assures a rapid growth. In the first year its possible to get a 70% conversion rate. That means for every 100 lbs of food you get 70 lbs of alligator growth. The second year it drops to 30%. They are generaly harvested the second year at about 5' long. This is why many farmers use heated grow outs. Of course incubation at 90 degrees means all males are hatched which naturaly get bigger anyway....TC

The only LA Alligator farm I have seen is on Dirty Jobs, LOL. Very scientific! Of course, I've been to Gatorland, and Gator Jungle, but they aren't quite the mass markets that they have in LA.

I meant Lousiana not LA as Los Angelas. The term La. is the mail abbreviation for Louisiana. The only alligator farms in LA as far as I know are the fruits and nuts walking around...LOL....TC

Yeah, LA is the postal abbreviation for Louisiana. LA is also Lower Alabama.