Hey Y'all, lets go swimming after dark. We can go right over there...where we were throwing rocks at that alligator all day...

"MIAMI (June 19) - An alligator attacked and killed a 12-year-old boy swimming after dark in a central Florida river close to a spot where people often fed the reptiles, a sheriff's deputy said Thursday.

Brian Jeffrey Griffin was swimming Wednesday night in the Dead River in Lake County when friends on the shore spotted several alligators and screamed for him to get out of the water.

One of the gators grabbed the boy in its jaws, dragged him under and swam away, Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Nick Pallitto said. "It was literally throwing him all over the place and thrashing him around and pulled him down," Pallitto said.

Witnesses using boats from a nearby marina tried to rescue Griffin but lost sight of him in the dark water.

He had been under water at least 20 minutes before a sheriff's deputies in a helicopter spotted him and dropped a buoy to guide the rescuers, one of whom jumped into the water and pulled the boy up onto a boat. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The children had been aware of the presence of at least one alligator during the day and had been throwing rocks at it. Griffin was swimming just after dusk, a prime feeding time, Pallitto said.

Afterward wildlife officials killed seven alligators ranging from 8 to 10 feet long and were fairly certain they got the one that killed the boy, Pallitto said.

The attack was in the cottage community of Palm Gardens near Tavares, some 40 miles northwest of Orlando. Alligators often gather near the bank where people feed them, causing them to lose their fear of humans, Pallitto said.

"People think it's really cool to feed them potato chips and what-not," he said. "When they become unfearful of humans, this is what happens."

The conditions favored an attack. "It's feeding time, it's their mating season so they're really agitated to begin with," Pallitto said. "That combination ain't good."

Florida wildlife officials have documented 325 alligator attacks on humans since they began keeping records in 1948, including 13 fatalities."

People are just too stupid to understand why you shouldn't feed gators.  Not that swimming with them in those conditions was too bright either...

We have gators down here on the Gulf Coast also.

People that don't know about them tend to think they are relatively harmless.  I have more than one friend that has lost retriever dogs when duck hunting.

I don't like gators.

[img]http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~bklingen/alligators/images/Florida%20Wetlands,%20Alligator.jpg[/img]

This will be the 13th reported fatal alligator attack on people in Florida since 1948. There are 15 to 20 non-fatal alligator attacks occur each year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

I am greatly saddened at this news, as a father I could not imagine losing my son at any age.   However,  I doubt my child will be dumb enough to swim in gator infested waters at night.  Besides Illinois and Wisconsin doesn't have many gators.    I guess we will chalk this up to the gator cleaning up our gene pool a bit...

Here in E TX, we have gators as well.
I saw one in April, out on Caddo Lake.
The critter was 8' long, (I believe Kar98 posted a pic of it a while back), sitting in the middle of a well traveled channel in broad daylight, female, and guarding a nest.
This is why she showed no fear of the boat we were in.
Our friend the boat owner circled back 3 times so Kar's German Mom could get pics of her.
She showed no fear, and it was a bit disconcerting to realize that there was maybe 18" of gunwale between me and her.
Scary animal.
I have heard the way to guesstimate size on the beasts is that, for every inch of distance between it's eyes and it's nostrils, there is a foot of gator in the water.
They are positively prehistoric, fascinating, and deadly.

i've never even seen a gator up close but people feed them? harmless my ass they look like big lizards.

Some folks have  [noclue]  I think they need to put Literature in the welcoming stations for all the incoming ‘New’ residents to the state that tell them not to screw around with alligators.

I saw a while back a picture in the local paper, of some old folks from Canada reaching over to touch a gator on the tail that was sunning himself on the shore of Lake Alice, which is a small lake located on the University of Florida campus! I’ve seen some Hugh gators in that lake, and mean as hell!

Here again: [noclue]

I grew up in FL and remember fondly seeing gators all over the place. Nothing quite like coming home to find a 8' gator in the backyard pool. Hey everybody, let's go swimming! Better yet, let's go swimming in [b]DEAD RIVER[/b]! Um, yeah...

This is right up there with petting the bison and bears at Yellowstone.

Reminds me of a story my Dad told me about when he went to florida to visit my Great Grandfather and Grandmother back in the early 1970's. They are relaxing and talking on the patio when they hear a man screaming and swearing. They run around the side of the house to see what was going on (There was a canal a ways behind the houses in that area.) They see a 6 foot long aligator heading away from the neighbors house with a poodle in its mouth. The neighbor was chasing after the gator with a ball bat, beating it and yelling. The gator got away into the canal. My Dad went over to talk to the neighbor afterwards and the guy said "That was the 3rd dog I lost that way in 4 years".

If you ain't a Gator, you're gator bait![:D]

I'll second that!

Not that kids watch the news but I believe it was a day or so earlier that a gator killed a 120lb Doberman by Orlando.
[url]http://www.wftv.com/news/2276070/detail.html[/url]
[img]http://images.ibsys.com/2003/0616/2273529.jpg[/img]

Hugh gators...yepper. People feed them chicken and other meats, thinking they are "taming" them. Nope. Wait till mating season and they will chase you down on land, which is where they have a number of attacks as well. Not all attacks are in the water...these suckers can run pretty good too.

We usually don't mess with them when we're fishing...they're timid and frightened of humans in general. But, all it takes is someone getting used to the gators lumbering around in slow motion. BAM!! They'll get you.

Look out for the Hugh gators..they're the meanest.

This gator attack happened in central Florida, nothwest of Orlando. It was not night time. The boy was taken at 7 pm, when gators become active for nocturnal ventures. It doesn't get dark until after 8pm this time of year. Imagine being a gator, whether you are 6 feet long or 16 feet long. Your head never reaches 2 feet off the ground. To a gator, an adult man appears to be huge in comparison with a child or a dog. Lay with your head on the ground and look up at the kids, look up at your dog, or gaze up at your wife. Instinctively, the gator is going to try the dog first, the kids next.
After repeated warnings, the kid refused to get into the boat. Disaster is the result. All the kids had undoubtedly cried wolf with each other during the history of their friendship. I know because my friends and I did it when we were kids swimming out at L-67 canal on Highway 41. When youv'e been swimming in lakes and canals in South Florida your whole life, thats a funny joke to play on your friends. Kinda like, "pull my finger." It was even funnier when we would conspire against one kid and yell, "FUCKING GATOR BEHIND YOU!" Then everyone takes off swimming towards shore!

[puke]


The swamp..... [puke]
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.Go NOLES!!!!!!!! [headbang]

[img]http://www.crocodilehunter.com/crocodile_hunter/snapshots/images/thumbnails/croc_hunt_05.jpg[/img]

where were the parents?

Is it true that 'gators will bite off your crank if you take a whiz in their swamp?

Only the "Gainesville" gators.   [;D]

Early Sunday morning I saw one at least 8 feet long strolling across Rivers Ave in North Charleston (SC).  A cop had traffic blocked to prevent it becoming a speed bump.  I would have stuck around to watch animal control show up, but was on my way to work.

Pretty cool, but watch out for the teeth!

Yea.... Cause they are Gay'tors! [wave]

Local news is saying it happened at a fish camp around the fish cleaning table.The camp owner had chased the boys off earlier in the day.They came back later but only this one went in.His buddies wouldn't go in and tried to talk him out of it.

Of course the sorry excuse for parents will sue.It's certainly not their fault they were such bad fucking parents they would not surpervise their own kid.

Hey, I'm wearing a bit of gator on my right wrist even as I type.

Wow!  chumming the water before swimming.  Intellegent.  Any of you other FL guys ever watch a trapper work.  Those guys are scary.  No fear at all.  Had about an 8 footer in a local pond frequented by people last year, Trapper shows up, wades around the bank through the tall marsh grass, doing that weird noise gators make, and slapping the water with a fishing rod.  freaked me out.  I stayed on the shore near my patrol car [;D].  I had one start hissing and stand up on all fours once.  I got on top of the patrol car for that guy.

That's what I don't get, these kids should KNOW 'gators!! When I was that age, I knew all local wildlife, and their habits!!  (no gators}

When I was 16 I stayed with my best friends family in Lakeland Florida for the whole summer.
Now being form jersey I never saw an alligator in the wild and had not seen one close up until one day around 4 in the afternoon we were swimming in "banana lake" and a huge alligator started swimming towards us we were swimming as hard as we could we all made it to shore in a nic of time, how close was it?
The alligator snapped at my friends leg and missed as we got up the embankment.

I asked my friends why they didn't tell me there was alligators in that lake, they said there's alligators in every lake in Florida and I should have known that, LOL  
I almost got the award that day.

I dunno..... You would think they would know gators...... Maybe they or he was new to the state or something! I knew about gators at a early age...... My 6 and 3 year old know about gators!