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WICHITA EAGLE (Kansas) 07 April 05 Gator trapper suffers first job injury - Gator hunter Todd Hardwick suffered his first injury ever tangling with a gator Wednesday, then promised this one would live. (Charles Rabin, Miami Herald)
Photo: Rescue: A helper pulls rope attached to grappling hook lodged in Todd Hardwick's arm to get him onto land-gator in tow. (Moises Rojas)
The gator is 9 feet long, about 220 pounds. Gator trapper Todd Hardwick is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, maybe 150 pounds when wet.
After a call for help from a nervous resident, Hardwick and the gator met Wednesday afternoon where two canals intersect near Northwest 172nd Street and 52nd Avenue.
What ensued was the closest Miami-Dade's only licensed gator trapper has ever come to losing his life while tussling with a gator.
A grappling hook that secured the gator to the ground as Hardwick sat on its back ripped free and tore into Hardwick's arm.
The gator rolled. Hardwick rolled with him -- into the water.
''Instinctively I put him in a headlock and scissor-locked him,'' Hardwick said. ``As we deathrolled the hook went deeper into my arm. The hook hit the bone.''
Hardwick was saved by local resident Moises Rojas. As the gator started rolling toward deeper water, Rojas grabbed a rope attached to the grappling hook and pulled Hardwick back to the canal's bank. Rojas then pulled the hook from Hardwick's left forearm.
By midafternoon the local tough guy was at his doctor's office getting cleaned up. The gator was secured in the bed of his truck in the parking lot.
Hardwick received no stitches because his doctor wants to air out the wound. But he said he's been injected with enough antibiotics to cure a nation's woes. He said his body aches and there is some nerve damage.
''But I'll be catching gators -- hopefully by tomorrow,'' Hardwick said.
It's the first time in his 25 years of chasing the elusive reptiles that he has had to see a doctor.
He's never been bitten. He's had rabies shots twice; once he had to go to the doctor for injuring a knuckle -- he can't remember how.
Wednesday's mishap occurred during Hardwick's second gator call of the day. Hours earlier he had taken care of a smaller reptile locals had named ''Ali Gator'' who had taken up residence in tiny North Lake just west of Aventura.
Measuring 4 feet, 4 inches in length, and just over 20 pounds, Hardwick called that catch ``embarrassing.''
By mid-afternoon, he was at the canal in Northwest Miami-Dade. Three Miami-Dade police officers and Rojas with a video camera looked on as Hardwick began his struggle. He said he never thought of yelling at the officers to shoot the reptile.
According to Hardwick, state law only allows a trapper two choices after a gator is captured: death or captivity. And there aren't many requests these days for alligators -- they breed in abundance.
Usually Hardwick sells the captured animal for its hide and meat, which he says barely covers the cost of the permit he has to obtain from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
He said this year has been an unusually active gator season. He's caught 27 of them in the past week. ''It's breeding season. But I've never seen it like this,'' he said.
Rojas, who called Fish & Wildlife to get rid of the gator that had taken up residence behind his house, was taping the removal when he handed his camera to someone and went to Hardwick's aid.
``I pulled them to shallower water. I tried to put my foot on the gator's mouth, but he kept snapping. I had the rope in one hand and pulled the hook out with the other.
``It's nothing I'd ever want to do again.''
Hardwick said this gator will survive. ''I have to give him credit,'' Hardwick said. ``If nobody wants him, he lives with me. He's a winner. If I have to I'll dig a pond. I have seven acres and a gator license.''
Gator trapper suffers first job injury

http://www.local10.com/news/4355358/detail.html

I'm on dial up right now, so I haven't yet watched it.
Hardwick Hooked