TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — An alligator was removed from a canal in Cape Coral after a homeowner said it ate a dog and cat on the same day, according to reports.
The gator was first spotted by a family’s dock Wednesday morning after they heard a dog yelp, followed by a series of splashes.
“We got up, came out, and looked and it was an alligator with a dog in its mouth,” Alex Phillips told NBC affiliate WBBH.
Less than an hour later, the family heard another splash. Again, they jumped up to see what the commotion was.
“We were sitting in the lanai and we heard another splash,” Phillips said. “The gator is now wrestling with a cat.”
Phillips said he recognized the cat as it used to roam the empty lots near their house. Now, it was in the jaws of the gator that slowly backed into a storm drain near the canal.
“Gator gotta go,” Phillips told WBBH.
A few minutes after Florida Fish and Wildlife trappers arrived, the gator did. The news outlet said it took trappers just one cast of their rod to the gator in.
“This gator’s been fed,” one trapper said. “You see how it bulges in? That’s all fat. That’s all from being fed.”
When asked if the gator was capable of eating the dog, the trappers responded, “Absolutely.”
“For it to be coming after dogs and animals, what’s stopping it from coming after us,” another homeowner told WBBH.
