ALLIGATORS AND DOGS DON'T MIX

by Whit Gibbons

June 12, 2005

A close friend told me about her recent experience with an alligator at a recreational park in coastal South Carolina. While taking her 12-year-old son out in a kayak for the first time, she rounded a bend in the lake and saw a five-foot alligator. Despite knowing that alligators are common in parts of South Carolina, she was taken aback. But her real surprise came when someone told her the alligator had been put in the lake intentionally.

The news was perplexing: not only because people had moved an alligator from one area to another, an activity that is against the law without proper permits, but also because they put the alligator into a lake where people paddle around in boats almost level with the water. Now my friend knows that alligator attacks on people are extremely rare, especially considering the tens of thousands of encounters between humans and alligators each year in the South. But this lake also happens to be in a "dog park” where dogs go swimming.

A dog park is a place to bring your pet for a day of fun. This includes allowing the dog to run without a leash in some areas, to bark without a neighbor yelling at it (or you), and to chase Frisbees and tennis balls. Tennis balls are routinely tossed into the water for dogs to retrieve. The problem, of course, is that the lake in this dog park now has a resident alligator. Alligators love dogs, in a gustatory sense. The biggest alligator could and would eat the biggest great Dane, German shepherd, or pit bull in a minute. Average-size alligators would readily eat a terrier, poodle, or dachshund, especially one that was swimming. Dogs are merely prey to an alligator. According to a park attendant, this alligator was "growing fast."

What is the likelihood that the alligator in the dog park might be dangerous? At only five feet long, it is unlikely to cause any harm this season or possibly even the next. But when it gets bigger and is not wary of being around humans, things will change.

In response to a recent query by someone who wanted to swim with alligators, I indicated that a five-foot alligator is not likely to attack anyone, although it might bite you if you try to catch it. The alligators people are warned about are full-grown adults: females that get more than nine feet long, and males that may reach lengths up to 13 feet. Females that have a nest with eggs or babies around them in the water will sometimes attack people. Adult alligators might also be a problem if they mistake you for a natural prey item like a deer or large fish splashing in the water. Alligators are not out to eat humans, but they have big mouths and teeth, and like any other large animal, they are potentially dangerous.

As for the alligator in the dog park, once it gets big enough, it is going to eat a dog. That’s almost a certainty. A dog may be a pet to us, but to a large predator like an alligator it is just another food item. In fact, some of the so-called attacks on people are the result of an alligator’s attacking a dog as food and a human’s not getting out of the way. Meanwhile, alligators are part of our native southeastern ecosystems and should be accepted as such. But some common sense cautions apply: do not let children or dogs near the water around big alligators; do not feed alligators (feeding them is illegal and is often the original reason for their interest in people); and do not pick up alligator babies, which begin to appear in late summer or fall.

In the wild, alligators are a natural part of the environment, and we should remember that we have invaded their home and not vice versa. But an alligator introduced into a lake at a dog park may well be considered an intruder. Alligators definitely make life more exciting, but none of us needs the excitement of watching our dog become a meal. The dog park makes it clear that owners are fully responsible for their dogs. They should also make it clear that alligators are not.



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