Just received this in an email from my mom in FW. The original sender is from the police department, so I tend to believe it true...along with these pics.

I grew up in this area along a creek...looks like I'll need to take a better look when strolling along the waterside with Mo!

Not sure where the blood came from, but this is the original text of the email:

quote:

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On Saturday night June 13 Fort Worth police officers while on patrol found a 12' Alligator on the Eastside of Fort Worth at Bell Spur & Trinity by some gravel pits. Attached are pictures of the gator and the officers. Remember, where there is one---there is another. The Game Warden believes he swam up the Trinity River.

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Remember! Where there is one... there may be just one!


So they shot him in the head and then taped his jaws shut?

Yea...I found that to be a little odd too.

That's a nice sized gator for Tarrant County.

The shooting and taping is a bit much. I used to work for the Water District in Tarrant County and there are actually quite a few gators on Eagle Mountain Lake, a few spottings along the Trinity, and one confirmed in Lake Worth. They are there...just not real prevelant.

lots of Gators up and down the trinity river system.

My brother caught a gator while fishing in Lake Lewisville several years ago. It was probably 2' long. Have not found its mama yet.

www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Its-a-Gator-Not-a-Speed-Bump.html

There's no hope for some people. Sheesh. One of the comments to the above link:

Okay, so I read the whole story. As well as other stories presented by other news outlets, that showed the full picture of the alligator. My question is, if the animal was run over why didn't they have it examined by a vetrinarian? Instead the gator was "put to sleep" by authorities who shot and killed it.

There is a local businessman here in B/CS who went on an alligator hunt a few years ago with a guide down on the coast. They caught a gator, shot it and loaded it in their mule. When they got to town, they stopped at a Circle K to get something to drink. When they walked out, their "dead" alligator was walking across the parking lot. I think I'd err on the side of caution and tape his mouth also.

I don't think they shot him. The article said he was put to sleep. There's a lot of paper work involved for the cops to shoot him on the side of the road. I bet they just sat there with him until the game warden showed up, and then transported him to the SPCA.

Looks like they shot him in the head. In fact, that is exactly what happened.

From the photos that's a fairly decent sized gator and I'm not at all surprised that there was a gator found in Ft. Worth. The Trinity River system is full of them and it makes sense that they'd be up that far north. It's not like there aren't gators well north of the latitudes on which D/FW is located.

And even a large gator like that poses little danger to people. They simply aren't all that aggressive, even on land. Now, your dog or cat is another story. Those are a tasty snack for a gator.

So the gator was euthanized because it had been hit by a car. What in world is wrong with that? Should it have been allowed to roam free to suffer and possibly be a danger to others?

The cop is holding a handgun in the first pic. And that's a pretty obvious gunshot wound by the right eye.

You never hear much about it, but there are more gators in Dallas and Tarrant county than people think.

maroonblood08 & superag79- the game warden in the linked story said the gator had been hit in the head by a car.

It's not at all obvious that the thing was shot in the head, in fact the photos don't make that clear at all. And if I was the cop in that photo above you can be damn sure I've got my weapon out and ready to defend myself or the public from an injured and probably pissed off gator.

Shooting it in the head? Why not capture it and put it on exhibit or re release it back into the wild.

Gators are a lot harder to kill than most mammals. Years ago, we were trotlining the lower Guadalupe River. We sighted gators on a regular basis. We had one surface next to our boat as we were running one of our lines. He slapped the boat with its tail and nearly capsized our john boat. We did not know she was there until the tail slap. One of the guys with me emptied his .45 long colt into its head. THe gator submerged violently and almost capsized us again. A few minutes later, the gator came crawling out of the river about 50 yards up stream. Her head was bleeding profusely. We watched her crawl probably another 100 yards until she disappeared into the brush. Never saw her again. She was at least ten feet long. It was a pretty scary experience.

quote:

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Why not capture it and put it on exhibit or re release it back into the wild.

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Because Ft Worth isn't Pearland. I can't imagine that they have the training and equipment capture, transport and release a gator.

Actually the game wardens and biologists in the area do.

There are several known large gators on Lake Worth.

put me down as one who was not aware of the prevalence of gators in Fort Worth...and I grew up there!

Most of the area lakes have alligators in them. There is some possibility that there may be research on gators up in that area in the not so distant future. Heck, a good number of the gravel pits in Dallas county have gators in them. There is one area in Dallas that is simply known in some circles as Alligator Swamp.---This was more shear coincidence, we talked about alligators quite a bit in a meeting I was in today.

Edited---Just wanted to add, there aren't remotely enough for me to worry about them. Just realize, they are around.

Heck, Ft. Worth didn't used to have feral hogs, it's becoming an issue in several areas around the city

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 6/17/2009 11:58p).]

seen one at the creeks golf course in Carrolton, years ago though