FLORIDA TODAY (Melbourne) 13 April 05 Fla. woman: Dog died saving me from gator (WTSP Tampa Bay)
Tampa, Fla.: A Tampa woman today is hoping the bait a trapper set Monday night will lure an alligator that killed her dog.
Earlier in the day, the alligator was heading for Cindy Hernandez, who was swimming off her dock along the Hillsborough River.
Before the alligator reached her, her dog, Bob, swam in between them. Bob was killed, while Hernandez was able to safely swim to the dock.
"The only thing that can make any kind of sense out of this is Bob had to go to save me," she told Tampa Bay's 10. "You know, there was a choice."
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent out a trapper Monday night. If the gator goes for the bait, it will be trapped and destroyed.
A commission spokesman says alligators like that have lost their natural fear of humans, and must be killed.
Dog died saving me from gator