Residents: large gator ate dog

PLANTATION, Fla. (WSVN) -- Families are on edge, saying a huge gator has eaten a dog in their neighborhood, and, they fear, it could do worse.

"This report came in about two days ago," said Kevin Garvey Nuisance Wildlife Control. "Now this gator showed up here yesterday, and now we have a dog situation here with half a carcass in the water."

Residents now want to see the gator removed before the attacks escalate. "I saw him eating something big," said Patricia Lopez. "I don't think it was the dog, but it was something bigger than the dog."

Lopez said the gator is rather large itself. "I think it's 12 feet," she said. "I think because everyday I see this animal coming out of that corner."

Lopez said she feels like a hostage in her own home, saying there are two gators living behind her home, and one of them is aggressive. She said she is especially afraid for her grandson Lucas. "Sometimes I have to be outside with my dog because I'm so scared now," she said. "He's on the other side now, he starts coming to me. He doesn't care"

"We're worried because now we have half a dog floating in our lake," daughter Nichelle Lopez said, "and we don't understand what's it going to take for them to do anything. The gator's going to end up eating a kid. I have a 1-and-a-half-year-old that goes to his grandma's house, running around. God forbid the gator gets through the gate."

The Lopez family said they are concerned, especially after, they said, they saw the large one lunge at a person. "For the past few months we've been trying to get a hold of different people to complain about gators," said the younger Lopez, "because we constantly see the gators eating the ducks. They all tell us that they can't do anything about it because it's their habitat."

Garvey rolled up on Wednesday is now on the job, setting up a bait trap to try and hook the gator. He arrived with a large gator tied up in the trunk of his pickup truck from a job in Coral Springs. "Ten-and-half-footer," he said as he lowered the tailgate of his truck. "He took the bait and I was able to get close enough to harpoon him."

He now hopes the next one takes the bait. "They claim there's two gators in here ... we're on the waiting game right now."

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