Sanibel Alligator Update
 

Hey, everyone, I just got an email from a realtor on Sanibel, in which he tells about the new listings on the island. This is what he started his email with:

"As of the City Council meeting of 8/3/04, all alligators over four feet in length will be removed from Sanibel. Please call me if you would like more information."

Very interesting!

PS The realtor is www.EricPfeifer.com - I have no connection to him except a recipient of his emails!

Where are they going?

all gators over four feet off sanibel?

i doubt this is complete information ... since there's a 5,000-acre wildlife refuge on Sanibel that is full of big gators.

update ... it's apparently in the city limits and not the whole island, which is a good thing because the refuge has wonderful hiking trails.

Here's a link to an article in the News Press (Southwest Florida newspaper) "Sanibel revamps its gator policy":
http://www.news-press.com/news/local...804gators.html

Thea

Yep. Gators.. Florida is a dangerous place and I live here (Clearwater). My neighbor is a licensed alligator catcher for Pinellas County (Clearwater & St. Petersburg). Yesterday, we had coffee together while he was describing the 383 lb /9 foot gator taped and thrashing around the bed of his Toyota pick up. He got called out on Monday evening. The gator had snatched a good size Golden Retriever who spent a little too much time at the water's edge. The dog survived the attack but may not survive the incredibly powerful infection resulting from the bite.

Tourists and visitors unfamiliar with gators should not...I repeat..not allow their children or pets to linger near any water's edge. Park officers say it's Ok to swim in water where you don't see gator warnings... Don't.

CNN reported today there an estimated 1 million gators in Florida. A state with 7 million people. Do the math!.

They need to start harvesting gators again so that Hermes gator Kelly bag I want so badly will drop in price.

Just kidding.

Obviously, Florida, LA, Miss, SC, GA, and AL need to put a new gator management plan into action. The old one isn't working.

In the late 70's my DH was in law school at the U of F and there was a popular jogging trail around a small lake on the campus. I can't tell you how many times we'd see a gator sleeping on the trail and just jump over it as we jogged by. If that doesn't illustrate how invincible you feel as a youth nothing will. Of course now I realize it also illustrated bad judgment.

Another sad part of the Sanibel story is that these animals have been forced out of their natural habitats and in to residential areas because of over development.

The sentence in the News-Press article that bothers me is, "Among other things, the new policy, which goes into effect immediately, allows Sanibel to bring in a contract trapper to kill an alligator between 4 and 8 feet long if the animal is making people feel unsafe."

Unless it's in a zoo, what alligator wouldn't make you feel unsafe no matter what the length?

We live on a river in a residential neighborhood in FL and just a few weeks ago I was driving in an area prone to flooding during a heavy rain and there was a gator, about three feet long, walking down the road. Although I hate the thought of a gator being killed just for walking down the street, I don't want to find that same gator in my backyard.

The bottom line is, once again, humans have caused the problem by destroying wildlife habitats and building condos. However, that's the way it is and the way it will remain; the animal will suffer because no matter how you look at it, any alligator is a potential threat.

When someone is stupid enough to feed an alligator, they might as well paint a target on its back because they have instantly made it a threat.