Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Did everyone in this room know: Wildlife officers are required to exterminate alligators that come into contact with humans? Well, thats true, it is law in Florida that they HAVE to kill any alligator that comes onto anyones property. Hmmmm.. kinda makes you wonder what kind of society we live in? One that deems it LEGAL to sell the butchered off heads and paws of alligators as souviners in gift shops and flea markets. One that will prosecute you to the "fullest" extent of the law if you have one as a pet. UNBELIEVEABLE.

I know that they will kill larger animals. I think that at 5 foot or more they are considered dangerous and will be killed. They often release the smaller animals into the wild after scaring the hell out of them.
They figure the large ones will never learn to fear humans, while the young ones may grow to avoid us after a good scare.
I don't like that they do it. but I have seen large wild gators that expect to be fed when they see humans. An eight foot gator that thinks of humans as a source of food it not a good thing.

You misunderstood what I stated in the above message. The Florida WIldlife officials will kill ALL alligators. No matter how big they are or small.

When did this start? The trapper I knew only killed the bigger ones.

Thats actually untrue. Officials are only required to kill the animal if it is trusting of people from it being fed,etc. If they were required to kill them onsite if they are arouund people most of the animals in florida would be wiped out due to human expansion were alligators live. Sad really.

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Jeremy Carroll
Center for Reptile and Amphibian Propagation and Conservation
http://www.onet.net/~eagle/Reptile/index.htm

"Sad" being the key opportune word here. ie. Its sad that people type untrue statements. Its sad to see that coming from what looks like a government funded conservation society that you work for that you would initially type that. Try looking up in a Florida State Statutes book on laws and regulations. Then you will truely see how sad and mistaken you are in your above statement. Please do your homework before typing a rebuttal against something that you are "ignorant" of. Jeremy, go to the library, check out that book on Florida statutes, then come back with something that is intelligent and is backed with factual information. Do not stick up for the government by insinuating false statements against the laws which they made up. Thank you.

Not saying you are incorrect, but I couldn't find anything to support the laws you are referring to that require anybody to kill a 4 foot or less alligator. I have found information that states that alligators four feet and less are not considered dangerous to humans, and that guidelines are that they are not removed, but rather the complaintants are encouraged to let them be.

Please read the attached documents and see if you agree. I would also appreciate it if you would cite the statute number that you are talking about so I can get a copy of it. I like to know these things.

Thank you.

Bill

page 5
http://www.wildflorida.org/gators/research/Articles/nuisance-csg2000.pdf

page 2
http://myfwc.com/commission/2003/september/mgmt_strategies_report3.pdf

section 372.67
http://myfwc.com/codebook/372.pdf

Hi Bill, I appreciate you looking up that information. Unfortunately, I have already returned the book to the library. I checked it out in the first place because the Fl. Wildlife commission is going to kill the alligators that reside in my lake. Anyway, I had to get a permit to keep these guys from getting harmed. In short, they told me that they were going to eradicate every alligator that inhabited one of my lakes including the babies. I did happen upon that law in the statues book. There is nothing that dictates how big or how small the alligator has to be. It is law that they kill them on site. Seems there are alot of Fl. state employees in this room or they are just everyday people living in a fantasy land where they believe everything they see or hear on TV. Thank you for your reply.

"Sad" being the key opportune word here. ie. Its sad that people type untrue statements. Its sad to see that coming from what looks like a government funded conservation society that you work for that you would initially type that. Try looking up in a Florida State Statutes book on laws and regulations. Then you will truely see how sad and mistaken you are in your above statement. Please do your homework before typing a rebuttal against something that you are "ignorant" of. Jeremy, go to the library, check out that book on Florida statutes, then come back with something that is intelligent and is backed with factual information. Do not stick up for the government by insinuating false statements against the laws which they made up. Thank you.

I called them all.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
US Fish and Wildlife Service Offices in Florida

They wouldn't have been at your pond looking for gators unless somebody call in a complaint. If the animal is a dangerous size, and seems to be unafraid of humans, or has learned humans are a source of feed, it would have been killed.
Are you sure your neighbors didn't call. I hope you hadn't been feeding the wildlife. That could have led to them beiing killed.

What snapperman is telling you is not true. Jeremy Carroll and Bill Moss are correct. Snapperman is either ignorant of the state law or deliberately lying.

What do you all call it when someone makes outrageously false statements just to get a rise out of people?

Having spent five years in the Pensacola Florida area and working closely with state and federal regulators there, I would be very surprised to see them just killing off any gator no matter the size. Typically, the gator has to be at least four feet and have been classified as a "nuisance alligator". Unfortunately I do not have the regulatory citation off the top of my head, but this would be easily verifiable. However, if the size is not specifically referenced in the regulations, there may have been an operational memorandum that would have been published following passage of the regulation that clarifies this that would take a bit more digging to find. BUT, knowing several agents there they would not bother with a gator less than four feet, and anything larger only if there are extreme circumstances that requires elimination of the animal. However, this is only based on my experience with a dozen or so officers there.

Cheers, Chris

Christopher K. Carmichael, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Department of Natural Sciences
Coordinator of Zoo Biology Majors
Malone College
Canton, Ohio
330-471-8175