Alligator trapper Broderick Vaughan was called to the scene of an accident between an alligator and a semi-truck around midnight June 3. When he arrived, he found the gator was still alive, though stunned and walking in circles. Vaughan has been trapping gators — steady work in Florida, which has 1.3 million of them — for a decade, and this was the biggest he’d ever handled, he told CNN.
Vaughan got it off the road and — somehow — and into his truck, but the animal was badly injured and Vaughan put it down. “There was no reason to keep him alive and let him suffer,” he said.
Vaughan says alligators on the roads are a problem in May and June, which is mating season. Clearly this gator didn’t get lucky.
The photo above is from Vaughan’s Facebook post from the encounter. He also links to Trooper Angie Daniels’ photos. Finally, this report from WTXL-TV in Tallahassee includes video that shows what we assume was the gator’s ultimate fate: one very large piece of leather.