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Alligator bites off arm of teen swimming in Florida river

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Sadsic

Member
gators are so cute.

a lot of florida restaurants nears swamps let you feed hot dogs and such to the baby ones =)
 
Alligators are generally pretty chill, and won't attack you if you don't mess with them.

HOWEVER!

Don't go swimming in alligator water, that's just dumb.

gators are so cute.

a lot of florida restaurants nears swamps let you feed hot dogs and such to the baby ones =)

They also don't taste bad.
 

matt360

Member
Had tons of alligators in my backyard when I lived in Florida. Saw them all the time. I also used to live just a few minutes from the beach. For whatever reason, sharks never bothered me and I was never scared to go swimming (even though my area in Central Florida was the shark bite capital of the world), but I would never, ever go into a lake or river where gators are known to live. Something about them freaks me out.
 

MrHicks

Banned
alligator shouldn't have been killed
get the kid to the hospital immediately but leave the gator alone

kid was stupid as fuck don't punish gators for doing what it does
 

Tesseract

Banned
maybe i'll go take a midnight dip ...

VPxrt.jpg
 

7threst

Member
Not swimming in gator-infested water? Okay, I get that. Check before swimming if there is a gator chilling in your pool? Yeah, of course. But checking your toilet because a gator made it it's home? That's just creepy man... How can people from Florida be so relaxed about this? I would be all like "see ya Florida, you have been very good to me but I hope I never see you and your alligator-infested toilets ever again because you creep me the fuck out". Seriously, not being able to take a shit in peace is where I draw the line.
 

Kinyou

Member
alligator shouldn't have been killed
get the kid to the hospital immediately but leave the gator alone

kid was stupid as fuck don't punish gators for doing what it does
I think it's common to kill an animal when it severely injured or killed a human.
 
When I was in the Cape Coral area, Lizards loved to hang out the patio and climb on the screen door. Even though water was mostly surrounding us, I never encountered an alligator.
 
Not swimming in gator-infested water? Okay, I get that. Check before swimming if there is a gator chilling in your pool? Yeah, of course. But checking your toilet because a gator made it it's home? That's just creepy man... How can people from Florida be so relaxed about this? I would be all like "see ya Florida, you have been very good to me but I hope I never see you and your alligator-infested toilets ever again because you creep me the fuck out". Seriously, not being able to take a shit in peace is where I draw the line.

I think I would have left Florida long before the advent of gator-toilets.
 

Tesseract

Banned
if the grass under your feet is squishy, get the fuck out. if the water is boggy, climb a tree. if the tree is mossy, you are already dead.

FLORIDA.
 

Quackula

Member
Every time I see a story about someone losing their arm, my first reaction is always "man, I'm sure glad I still have my arm."
 
alligator shouldn't have been killed
get the kid to the hospital immediately but leave the gator alone

kid was stupid as fuck don't punish gators for doing what it does

It had the arm, and there was a possibility of it being reattached. This isn't the 70s anymore, alligators are rather plentiful now.
 

bengraven

Member
We were able to kill the alligator and dissect the alligator, remove the arm and transport the arm to the hospital to see if the doctors could reattach the limb

God, this is the best story if they actually are able to attach the arm.

And as for those saying not to kill it, the gator population is very healthy.

Also, there are gators in nearly every body of water in Florida - what you're basically saying is "don't swim outside, ever". Which makes me wonder why you drive a car when you could get in a serious car accident at any point.
 

Prez

Member
They should make him a new arm out of the alligator. An alligator's head for an arm would look bad ass.
 

Vyrance

Member
Sucks that he lost his arm, but he should have known it wasn't smart to swim in a river down here. Should only be swimming in the ocean or Gulf. Alligators really don't bother us down here, especially on land. Just don't go into their water turf!
 
When I was in kindergarten living in Florida (Palm Harbor), me and my family lived in an apartment complex. There were snakes latched on the sides of the buildings. Yes, you read right: Snakes latched on the sides of the buildings. I asked my mother whether I was dreaming or not, and she said no. She would see them all the time.

Also, there was a big pond in the apartment complex. An alligator from the pond ate a little girl. I remember the media and people crowding around the pond, and me and my friend would play around and push each other near the edge of the water. Thinking about it now, that was dumb to do.

Years ago I would have dreams where I'm in the pond trying to GTFO of the water. Scary shit.
 

bengraven

Member
Because cars don't actively hunt you down to chew your arm off while simultaneously trying to drown you.

I've swam in waters with gators and drove down the street and I can tell you the that the one time someone intentionally harmed me it was with a car, slamming into my little shitty rust bucket because I refused to go faster than the speed limit while coming up to a turn.

THE OCEAN. THE GULF.

Gator-free, dogg. Gators are freshwater-dwelling animals.
.

Yeah, but there are so many great rivers and springs here. It's ridiculous to live your life in constant fear. That's like saying I shouldn't go in my backyard despite seeing a nearly camoflauged copperhead one day and a water moccassin the other.
 

Sianos

Member
There used to be an alligator in the (dirty) lake by my apartment complex. Everyone was pretty cool about it and we let each other be until some drunk fool tried to ride the alligator and the alligator responded the same way anyone would react to a forced piggy back ride.

Moral of the story is alligators just want to do alligator things and Floridians lack common sense.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Wow I didn't think that anybody in Florida would even swim in the lakes and rivers due to the threat of gators.

I'm guessing you've never been to Ichetucknee Springs. There's a threat of Gators being along the river but I've never seen them in the area when I've been there. But they post signs along the river to watch out and that the state parks aren't responsible for your risk of gators.
 

Sqorgar

Banned
THE OCEAN. THE GULF.

Gator-free, dogg. Gators are freshwater-dwelling animals.
Gators are a lot like hurricanes to Floridians. The rest of the world is like, "Why the fuck aren't you terrified?" Because it's Florida and we've got gators and hurricanes.

At Wakulla Springs (where they filmed The Creature From the Black Lagoon, as they will remind you constantly) people routinely swim within sight of alligators. If the gators get too close, they'll grab a boat and scare them off. But mostly, if they are just chilling in the water and not bothering anybody, they'll just let them be. Heck, for the longest time there was an 11-foot (I think) gator named Old Joe that was the unofficial pet of Wakulla Springs. Never bothered the swimmers.
 

bengraven

Member
I'm guessing you've never been to Ichetucknee Springs. There's a threat of Gators being along the river but I've never seen them in the area when I've been there. But they post signs along the river to watch out and that the state parks aren't responsible for your risk of gators.

Word, we were just there a couple weeks ago! It's fucking beautiful, clear water. The only thing we were told to watch out for was the manatees that come up sometimes at night, which is why we were asked to leave early.


If you use common sense, you're going to be safe.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Gators are a lot like hurricanes to Floridians. The rest of the world is like, "Why the fuck aren't you terrified?" Because it's Florida and we've got gators and hurricanes.

At Wakulla Springs (where they filmed The Creature From the Black Lagoon, as they will remind you constantly) people routinely swim within sight of alligators. If the gators get too close, they'll grab a boat and scare them off. But mostly, if they are just chilling in the water and not bothering anybody, they'll just let them be. Heck, for the longest time there was an 11-foot (I think) gator named Old Joe that was the unofficial pet of Wakulla Springs. Never bothered the swimmers.


Oh, I'm terrified of a gator attacking my Floridian ass, don't get me wrong. But you're right: They generally won't attack and will stay on the coastline away from humans in lakes and the like and if they do get close most people will GTFO and leave them be (or get someone to shoo them off).

Word, we were just there a couple weeks ago! It's fucking beautiful, clear water. The only thing we were told to watch out for was the manatees that come up sometimes at night, which is why we were asked to leave early.


If you use common sense, you're going to be safe.

I haven't been in years but man that river is cold as ice in the summer and worth going down until you get slight hypothermia from being in it tubing down a mile or so.
 
"He was waving saying, 'Call the paramedics! My arm is gone!'" Gary Beck said.

He seemed awfully calm about it all. If it were me I'd be screaming and throwing out f-bombs everywhere, not saying "You there, sir, would you mind calling the paradmedics? My arm appears to be missing." lol
 
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