Great-gran gets revenge on gator
Texas woman shoots 12-footer suspected of eating miniature horse
A Texas great-grandmother says she’s finally gotten revenge on the massive alligator that ate her miniature horse a few years ago.
It took just one shot for Judy Cochran to dispatch the12-foot, 580-pound gator at her ranch Sunday in Goodrich, Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported. Goodrich is about an hour northeast of Houston.
“We think this is the gator that ate one of our miniature horses several years ago,” said Cochran, who happens to be the newly elected mayor of nearby Livingston. “As big as this gator was, he could’ve easily eaten it.”
The pond where she killed the beast is the same one where her grandson, then 5, felled a gator nine years ago.
Polk County is one of only12 in Texas with an alligator hunting season, she said, and its limits gave her a 20-day window to take care of business. Permits and tags had to be procured. Hunters are mandated to first catch the animals on a hook.
As a public official, she wanted to let people know she followed the rules. “We don’t just go to the ranch and hunt a gator,” she said.
Her son-in-law lured the alligator with a seasoned raccoon set over the pond and called to let Cochran know the elusive beast had finally been bagged.
Cochran finished a meeting, then grabbed her Winchester .22 Magnum.
Cochran, who her grandkids call “Nana,” is already anticipating the alligator meat and boots that her quarry will yield.
“Don’t mess with Nana,” she said.