If You Can't Shoot A Wild Alligator In Your Own House....

Ronald Bailey | May 18, 2006

When can you? That's the question that a Florida woman must be asking. According to the Washington Post:

Yesterday ... an alligator walked through the doggy door of a woman's house in Bradenton and went for her golden retriever. The woman grabbed a shotgun and blazed away. The alligator escaped with a flesh wound. The neighbors heard shots and called police, who promptly cited the woman for hunting without a license.

It's legal to shoot a person who invades your home, but apparently defending your pet against dog-eating alligators is verboten.

Another hat tip to Pamela Friedman.

Comments

|5.18.06 @ 10:34AM|#

Can the SWAT teams that "always shoot the dog" get brought up on the same charges? That'd be sweet.

|5.18.06 @ 10:43AM|#

The "same" charges, Russ? Ahem, but, I would like to think that we could draw a meaningful distinction between shooting a predatory animal that has invaded your house and is preying on your pet, and, say, chasing a poor puppy back into a burning house and watching it burn to death as you cuff and stomp its owners for smoking a joint. Those SWAT cunts need to be taken to the gallows---not simply be charged with a Fish & Game violation.

|5.18.06 @ 10:56AM|#

Evan,

Agreed, but I'd like to pile on charges to those bastards. The more ridiculous the better.

|5.18.06 @ 10:57AM|#

Yeah, but that person invading your house is a threat to you, that alligator is not.

|5.18.06 @ 2:11PM|#

Well, considering how cops apparently have carte blanche to kill people's pets during raids (see Radley Balko's blog for examples; he's got quite a few), it's no surprise that gators apparently do too.

|5.18.06 @ 3:11PM|#

Wait - maybe it was a trained SWAT gator, and that's what the fuss is about?

|5.18.06 @ 4:01PM|#

I can't really imagine the hunting without a license charge holding up if she were to fight it. Unfortunately, like so many minor infractions she will probably find it cheaper to just pay the fine rather than hire an attorney to defend herself.

On the other hand, I would not be surprised if a little bit of public outcry didn't cause the FWC to back down.

|5.18.06 @ 5:30PM|#

Judging by the overall tone the tone of the article I think the writer was joking about the hunting without a license citation.

|5.18.06 @ 5:45PM|#

OK, here is the story from the local paper.

Apparently she was only issued a warning citation for hunting without a license.

|5.18.06 @ 5:46PM|#

If the game enters my house, I figure it wants to be eaten.

|5.18.06 @ 6:49PM|#

If the game enters my house, I figure it wants to be eaten

This reminds me of one of my favorite sayings: If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of meat.

|5.18.06 @ 6:51PM|#

Silly question of the day: Did the alligator have a hunting license?