Good news, bad news for alligators
June 15th, 2007 by admin
On Wednesday night at their meeting in Melbourne, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission nixed a proposal to allow homeowners to kill small “nuisance” alligators. (Currently, a licensed wildlife trapper must be contacted to capture, and relocate, alligators less than four feet long.) An ARFF representative spoke at the meeting against the proposal, arguing that the average person does not have the knowledge or experience to humanely capture, much less kill, alligators.
The meeting found ARFF in agreement with nuisance alligator trappers who also spoke against the proposal. One trapper also had some strong words of criticism for participants in Florida’s public alligator hunt. He told of witnessing hunters showing up at processing facilities after the hunt with alligators who were severely injured but still alive.
That’s the bad news. This week the wildlife commission began accepting applications to participate in the annual alligator hunt. 4,500 permits are available (each permit allows a hunter to kill two alligators), and they are expected to sell out. The barbaric hunt begins in August.