WEST PALM BEACH David Grounds was walking his 7-year-old dog by the pond behind his home west of West Palm Beach on Saturday morning when he saw the wake of a 7-foot alligator approaching.
He screamed for Mandy, a wheaten terrier, to get away but it was too late: the gator clamped down on Mandy's midsection and the squealing dog was helpless as the alligator started thrashing. Grounds, 65, rushed over and grabbed the gator's mouth with his hands while poking it in its eye with his thumb.
"He was powerful," Grounds said from his Palms West Hospital bed Saturday night.
The gator released its grip and Mandy was saved. But then the gator snapped at Grounds, taking part of his right index and ring fingers.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials were called and trapped the gator in the 6300 block of North San Andros after the 7:30 a.m. attack. The 7-foot, 2-inch alligator was euthanized.
Grounds, a civil engineer, said he had no regrets about the rescue, calling his wounds "no big deal," other than putting the cramp in his typing at work.
"I'd do it again," he said.
He does regret not calling FWC officials about the gator when he noticed it prior to Saturday. He said he didn't bother because it seemed wary of people.
Mandy was taken to Community Animal Hospital in Royal Palm Beach for treatment of a laceration to her stomach. She was out of the hospital the same day but Grounds, who lives with his wife, has to stay in the hospital a couple of days to make sure infection doesn't set in.
Incidents of alligators biting humans are very rare, FWC spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro said. In the past 60 years, there have been only 315 unprovoked bites on people by alligators in Florida. Twenty-two of those bites have resulted in a human death.
Saturday's attack was the second in Palm Beach County this year. The first occurred Jan. 27 in John Prince Memorial Park west of Lake Worth when a gator lunged from a lake at a contractor hired to clean the county park, taking one of his fingers with it.
Grounds said there was no way he was going to let the gator eat his dog.
"My wife and son would have killed me," he said, with a chuckle.
The state wildlife commission asks that people call the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-392-4286 if they encounter gators they think are threats to humans, pets or livestock.
