LUCKY PUPPY FREED FROM GATOR.
A man who wrestled his puppy from an alligator's jaws without dropping his cigar has been hailed a hero after footage of the encounter circulated widely online.
Richard Wilbanks, 74, was outside his home in Estero, Fla., when the reptile emerged from a pond in his backyard “like a missile” and dragged his three-month-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel below the surface.
“I never thought an alligator could be that fast,” Wilbanks told CNN, adding that it was a sudden rush of adrenalin that spurred him to “automatically” jump into the pond to save the life of little Gunner.
Surveillance video of the 20-second incident shows Wilbanks waist-deep in the water groaning as he pulls his puppy out of the water with the American alligator still attached to the lower half of its body.
Wilbanks can be seen thrashing around in the pond while straining to free the whimpering puppy from the alligator. More than 10 seconds later, Wilbanks succeeds in his bid to save the puppy — which is then seen running up the hillside away from the water.
Wilbanks told CNN his hands were bloodied and “chewed up” after his battle with the animal, although the puppy — and the cigar — remained in one piece.
The incident was recorded by cameras that had been placed throughout the neighbourhood as part of a project that the Florida Wildlife Federation and the FSTOP Foundation launched earlier this year. The joint initiative seeks to capture footage of wildlife in the community so that residents in the area can understand more about the animals they live alongside — including deer, raccoons and bobcats.
There are more than one million alligators living in the state of Florida, according to non-profit organization Defenders of Wildlife and around five million in the southeastern U.S.
Gunner was treated for a small wound to the stomach but is otherwise fine, while Wilbanks received a tetanus shot and will keep his pet on a leash and farther away from the water from now on.