xpluswearer said:
Just wonder how those folks tell what is a log and a alligator when they try to make a living getting logs from the swamps and rivers to send to sawmills.
OK, I grew up down here in the SWAMPS!
On less than 2 hands I can count how many times I have come across a poisonous snake let alone a snake.
I have wandered up on alligators twice while out hiking, fortunately we scared the tar out of each other and scampered in opposite directions.
I have seen a lot of alligators. When I was younger I would swim/water-ski/tube in the lakes and rivers. There was a whole lot less of them back then. Since the tree huggers got involved, the state is over run with them, and occasionally we have tragic accidents with pets and people. Even though they have a "controlled" hunt every year, it is not nearly enough. Additionally having a nuisance alligator removed from a neighborhood lake is not that simple. Usually it has to be so big, and or have been aggressive. The problem is, by the time it gets aggressive it has eaten someones dog or bitten or killed somebody.
I'm all for the alligator, just not quite so many of them. I also believe that people that feed/harass them need to face serious penalties, as this is what helps alligators get over their natural fear of people and starts to associate people as a "food source" and sets up these tragedies.
58 years later in Fla, Im still walking around...God must not be ready for me yet. In Florida most stuff can sting you, bite you, or eat you! How the hell can this be a tourist mecca!?