An alligator kills a pit bull in a Florida under alert for spring

Miami, 15 Mar The Florida (US) nature conservation agency warned Tuesday of the dangers posed by alligators in early spring, an alert that arrived late for a pit bull dog fatally attacked by one of these reptiles on a university campus in the southwestern part of the state. As every year around this time, the Florida Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (FWC) published its manual “Tips for Coexisting Safely with Alligators”, something necessary in a state where, according to the same entity, some 1.3 million of these reptiles spread across its 67 counties live. One of those animals, about two meters long, killed a pit bull on Monday in the parks of the State College of Florida in the town of Venice (west coast), according to local television channels. Whenever there is an attack on humans or pets by alligators, the FWC is alerted, which in this case dispatched one of its hunters to the scene, who caught two alligators around two meters, one of whom would have killed the pit bull. Signs of spring (warm weather, bloom and nesting birds) are occurring all over Florida. Warmer temperatures also mean that alligators are more active and visible, stresses FWC in the manual published today. While claiming that serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida, the FWC recommends keeping a safe distance and never feeding them, as well as swimming in rivers, ponds, ponds or dams only in areas designated for that activity during the day and not at dusk or at dawn. “Keep pets on a leash and away from the water's edge and never let them swim in fresh or brackish water. Pets can resemble the natural prey of alligators”, also emphasizes the manual. According to a report published in 2021 by Outforia, a digital media outlet about nature and adventures, between 2009 and 2019 247 people died in accidents involving animals in Florida, a figure second only to Texas (520) and California (299). Alligators are in fifth place in the ranking of animals that have claimed the most human lives in the US since 1970, with 33 deaths compared to 70 for the brown bear, which is number one on the list. One of the most dramatic cases of death by an alligator occurred in 2016 at a hotel in Walt Disney World Park in Orlando (central Florida), where a two-year-old boy was dragged into the water by one of these animals while he was with his family on the shores of an artificial lake. His parents jumped into the water and tried to free the boy from the jaws of the alligator, 2 meters long, but they did not succeed. The minor's body was found intact 16 hours later by scuba divers at the bottom of the lake.